Gov. Shapiro supports Lhotshampa Bhutanese refugees in face of ICE arrests

HARRISBURG – Gov. Josh Shapiro on Tuesday addressed the recent detention of Bhutanese refugees by federal immigration authorities, saying he expects the Trump administration to follow the rule of law.

“They’ve been an important part of the social fabric, and the economic fabric, the educational fabric, the cultural fabric of our communities,” Shapiro said of the 70,000 Bhutanese in Pennsylvania – 40,000 of whom are in South Central Pennsylvania, he said.

“I want to make sure that anyone who has been rounded up by the federal government is given their full due process,” Shapiro said. “I expect the Trump administration to honor the law, to respect the law, and ensure those they’ve come in contact with receive due process.”

At least 10 Nepali-speaking Bhutanese refugees from Pennsylvania were in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody as of Tuesday, community leaders said. Seven of them are from Dauphin, Lancaster or York counties.

The men fear imminent deportation, based on what ICE officials are telling them, according to information provided by family members and community leaders like Tilak Niroula, the current board chair of the Bhutanese Community in Harrisburg.

Niroula has been heading his community’s response to the ICE arrests, including working with elected officials to try to pressure ICE to release more information on why the arrests are happening now, and what will happen to those who are detained. So far, they have received no responses.

WITF has also not received responses from ICE about the status of the men’s cases.

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Niroula said he met with Gov. Josh Shapiro on Monday to brief him on the situation, and he said he has a meeting with U.S. Sen. John Fetterman’s office on Wednesday and U.S. Rep. Scott Perry on Friday.

He already gained the support of a suite of local Democratic elected officials, who joined Dauphin County Commissioner Justin Douglas on March 18 to decry the first six known ICE arrests from the Nepali-speaking Bhutanese community. State Reps. Dave Madsen, D-Dauphin, Justin Fleming, D-Dauphin, Joseph Hohenstein, D-Philadelphia, and state Sen. Patty Kim, D-Dauphin all spoke against ICE’s actions and encouraged people to reach out to federal officials.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Bhutan’s government drove out one-sixth of its population when a nationalist government ethnically cleansed the Nepali-speaking Lhotshampa people from the southern part of the country. Over 100,000 refugees settled in refugee camps in Nepal.

Between 2006 to 2016, the U.S. admitted 85,000 Bhutanese refugees as the main partner in a United Nations resettlement program.

‘Not a winning issue’

Three of the detained men – Ashok Gurung and Maita Gurung, no relation and both of Harrisburg, and Bidur Khadka, of Pittsburgh – are being held at Pike County Correctional Facility. Ashok Gurung has a removal order dating back to July 2017 and, according to family members, never received a green card. He was arrested for felony assault in Georgia in 2013.

Khadka had a series of arrests for assault and domestic violence from 2019 through 2021. He was given removal orders in August 2023.

Maita Gurung has a long string of arrests related to public drunkenness and at least one guilty plea for simple assault and terroristic threats with intent to terrorize another in 2013. His family has not been able to find the paperwork and documentation to track the status of his case.

WITF is only releasing the names of individual detainees with their families’ permission or as they become part of the public record.

On March 18, Niroula said each of the six arrested men they knew of at the time had green cards and were legal permanent residents. In a statement released the next day, ICE contested that, stating the men arrested were not lawful permanent residents and that ICE was conducting routine operations.

WITF reviewed active green cards for three of the detained men.

In advocating on the detainee’s behalf, Niroula said he is relying on information shared from their families, who often do not have all the details about their loved one’s immigration status. For example, Khadka’s family did not know he had removal orders dating back to August 2023 until WITF shared those records.

Dauphin County’s Douglas said he’s been advised that advocating for these men is not a winning political issue. He said the fact that these men have criminal histories does not change the importance of protecting their rights, especially given the possibility of their deportation and the larger impact on the Bhutanese refugee community.

People who commit crimes need to be held accountable in the criminal justice system, Douglas said. He supports the deportation of confirmed gang members. But the bar has to be really high when deporting refugees, he said.

“I take a more compassionate angle on that rather than banning them from the country,” Douglas said.