Kia's mother testified at the trial that she cannot read and write and that her husband, who was deceased at the time of trial, filled out the date of birth for her daughter when the family came to the United States. She did not know how the children's birthdays were determined when they came to the United States, but she believes that what her husband put down was correct. In Laos, she testified, it was not customary to keep track of birthdays and years. On redirect, the prosecutor asked Kia's mother whether she thought any of her children's birth years were wrong. Nhia Vang, a minority coordinator at the Western Wisconsin Technical College, who is also a Laotian Hmong, testified that records of birth dates are not kept in Laos.
Parents count the number of seasons that have passed to keep track of the ages of their children.
Parents may be able to remember their children's ages up to about fifteen years, but the years may be inaccurate, and sometimes there are discrepancies even between the parents as to how many seasons have passed since the child was born. He explained that when his people came to the United States from Thailand, the officials asked them their birth dates, and the officials sometimes accepted the birth date a person gave them and sometimes gave the person a different birth date. Blong Thao, at the time of trial a deputy sheriff in Dane County, testified that he assisted Kia's mother, Chue Moua's mother, Kia, and Chue Moua in preparing an affidavit to submit to INS in April 1993. Blong Thao also testified that he went over the document word for word with Kia's mother in her language. Chue Moua testified that Kia's family told his family Kia was older than the records showed and Kia told him her age was not exactly as the records said.