On July 26, Anou Vongbandith was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He is currently being held at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Clearfield County, and is at risk of deportation. Anou, along with his wife Anh, owns Das Good Cafe, a year-old Asian-Hawaiian fusion restaurant that has become a favorite neighborhood hotspot in Germantown.

At 50 years old, Anou has lived in the U.S. since he was five, but was born in the Southeast Asian nation of Laos and never attained citizenship. For years, the Laotian government accepted few, if any, deportees, but these deportations have increased during President Donald Trump’s second term.

According to Anh, who agreed to be interviewed on her husband’s behalf, Anou never obtained citizenship and is being deported in large part due to a plea bargain he accepted in 2008 while the Vongbandiths were living in Lake County, Florida. In 2006, Anou was charged with multiple counts of lewd or lascivious molestation, exhibition, misconduct and child abuse, but pled guilty to the lesser charge of child abuse.

Following her father’s detainment, Jade Vongbandith, 26, Anh’s youngest daughter (a biological child she shares with Anou) started a GoFundMe asking the community for help with her father’s legal expenses. The campaign has raised over $49,956 as of Aug. 4. Jade said she is overwhelmed by the response to the family’s GoFundMe. “Seeing everyone’s support, and everyone coming to the restaurant and asking what they can do to help, giving their support, it’s amazing,” she said. The family is also seeking advice and support from local elected officials and is attempting to get the attention of some federal officials, including U.S. House Representatives Mary Gay Scanlon (D), Dwight Evans (D), and U.S. Senator John Fetterman (D).

When asked about her father’s plea deal, Jade told the Local, “I tried to put that in the past and get over it, but now it seems like everything’s coming to light again. So it’s an emotional process, but I feel like it’s for the best, because hopefully after all this, we can just keep that in the past and move on.”

According to Ahn, the situation started when she discovered her then-15-year-old daughter (Anou’s stepdaughter, whose name is being withheld by the Local due to the nature of the charges) was in a romantic relationship with a 21-year-old man. Ahn told the Local that, when she threatened to charge the man with statutory rape, he went to the police with her daughter and accused Anh and Anou of child abuse.

Anh said that her daughter, now 35, has since refuted the claims of abuse. The Local reached out to Anh’s daughter but did not hear back. Russell, Anh’s son, also refused our request for a comment.

The Local obtained the original Probable Cause Affidavit from the 2006 case against Anou from the Groveland Police Department. In it, arresting officer John Flinn asserts that Anou admitted to several instances of uncomfortable touching, inappropriate kissing, and exposing his children to pornographic movies. Gabriel Lozano, division chief, Office of the State Attorney, was not with the agency at the time of Anou’s plea, however, he said in a written statement to the Local, “I believe the allegations in the case speak for themselves. The defendant was Adjudicated Guilty on three counts of Child Abuse and went on to violate his probation.”

Although Lozano could not disclose how Anou violated his probation, he confirmed “a violation of probation affidavit was filed sometime in April 2008. The defendant admitted to violating his probation and was sentenced to an additional 120 days in jail for the violation in June of 2008 and continued on probation after that.”

In the aftermath of the abuse allegations, the Vongbandiths temporarily lost custody of their three children and hiring attorneys depleted their savings. Anh accepted a plea deal to regain custody, and when it was time for Anou’s trial, Anh asserts her husband was advised by their attorneys to accept a similar plea option.

Anou took the plea. Anh said several factors influenced the decision, including the bias the couple say they experienced as people of color in a majority-white community in Florida. Anh told the Local that the attorneys never mentioned accepting a deal would place Anou in violation of immigration law.

“He was never represented correctly and told every option,” she said. “He was just told that he would be protected and life would go back to normal. Normality is one thing we’ve never done.”

Shortly after the trial, ICE picked Anou up for the first time. Since then, he has been under ICE supervision, checking in twice a year with the agency.

The Local reached out to the Groveland Police Department and state attorney’s office. Police chief Shawn Ramsey’s office said the case predated him and he was unable to issue a statement. As of our publication deadline, we had not heard back from the state attorney’s office.

“He’s trying his best,” Anh said of her husband, “but he doesn’t want to go back to Laos because he doesn’t know anybody there. … His family’s here now. He feels so bad that the decision he made was the wrong decision, and it makes him so angry that he took a plea out of fear.”

Anh said her current hope lies in a Supreme Court ruling from 2010. In Padilla v. Kentucky, the court determined that defense attorneys must inform noncitizen defendants about the risk of deportation when deciding how they will plead to a criminal charge. She is concerned Anou’s detainment may affect his health, because he suffers from a chronic heart condition. “If he goes to Laos without his medication, he will not survive,” she told the Local.

Tommy Tucker can be reached at Tommy@chestnuthilllocal.com and Maggie Dougherty can be reached at Margaret@chestnuthilllocal.com.