OWASSO, Okla. — Sheena Vang said her father did everything right.
Chao Vang fled from Laos and the Vietnam War in 1975, sought refuge in France and then came to the United States to start a new life.
WATCH: 'Unjust': Owasso father faces deportation after living an honest life in US
Chao asked his eldest daughter to drive him to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement appointment. Sheena said she didn't realize he had annual check-ins with the department since moving to the US.
On June 11, Sheena drove her father to Oklahoma City to meet with ICE. She was the last of her six siblings to see him.
“He went in and my boyfriend and I stayed in the car," she said. "We were in there for three hours before my dad called me, and he pretty much was like 'they’re detaining me and they’re going to take me to Laos.'"
The Vangs were given no reason why Chao was detained.
He spent five days in David L. Moss Criminal Justice Center in Tulsa before being transferred to a facility in Cushing.
WATCH: 2 News Anchor Naomi Keitt covered Jenks woman being detained for possible deportation in a similar case:
“It’s just very unjust because he has been doing everything they wanted him to do, so I don’t know, there’s just nothing I can think of that would explain why they chose to detain him because he's a good person," said Sheena. "He doesn’t have a criminal history or anything.”
Since then, she's become his fiercest advocate.
Because he sought asylum in France, Chao couldn't claim citizenship in the US.
Sheena said he tried in 1994, but was denied. He then tried again in 2003, when he married her mother, but was denied again due to an issue with his first attempt.
The lack of citizenship could pose a problem for her father's case. The family attorney requested Chao's alien file to uncover the circumstances that led to his arrest and help fight his deportation.
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“Because he has no residency, he might not be allowed due process, so there’s a possibility that they would skip that completely, he won’t get a court date, and they would just deport him, so we're currently unsure until we get that alien file of what the next steps are.”
Thanks to a GoFundMe campaign the family started, they've been able to cover some of the attorney's fees and get by for the time being. But losing their father, the sole provider of their family, has the Vangs facing losing everything.
“My dad was the main caretaker, so he took care of the house, the mortgage basically, so without him, they don’t have the funds to take care of the house or to stay.”
Now, all seven children are being forced to split up across state lines. In addition to being a single father, Chao was also the primary caregiver for his 76-year-old mother.
The fear of what could come next reverberates through the Vang family.
“There are families who are being deported together," said Sheena. "If they are willing to do that to someone who they have allowed to stay in the country, I feel like they’re willing to do that to anyone who does that with status.”
Sheena said now it's a waiting game. Until they receive the alien file, the family is unsure what to do next.
But, the Vangs are committed to doing whatever they can to keep their father in the country. They started a petition to fight Chao's 'unlawful' arrest.
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