Letter to Tony Pham, Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement - Congressman Lowenthal, House Colleagues, Human and Immigration Rights Orgs Urge New Acting ICE Director To End Southeast Asian American Deportations

Letter

We write on the occasion of your appointment to this important position and to express our deep
concern about the detention and deportation of Southeast Asian refugees from Laos, Cambodia,
and Vietnam.
Hundreds of thousands of Southeast Asian refugees fled to the U.S. to seek freedom from
political persecution in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and the Communist take-over of
Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Many of those who fled fought alongside or supported U.S.
forces during the war. Others were born in refugee camps and have never set foot in the country
to which they face deportation to.
Upon their arrival in the U.S., these refugees, many of them young children or teenagers, were
resettled in struggling neighborhoods without support or resources to cope with significant
trauma from the war. As a result, some made mistakes that funneled them into the criminal
justice system. However, these refugees have served their time and are now positively
contributing to their communities.
Recently, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) repatriated thirty Vietnamese nationals,
including individuals confirmed to be pre-1995 refugees. These individuals are protected by the
terms of the 2008 US-Vietnam Agreement.
This longstanding agreement, which was signed under President George W. Bush, did not outline
a bilateral agreement regarding the deportation of any Vietnamese citizens who arrived in the
United States before the two countries reestablished diplomatic relations on July 12, 1995, as this
was subject to previous legal positions of the two countries. [Article 2, Para. 2]
Even for those who came to the U.S. after July 12, 1995, the agreement promises to "take into
account the humanitarian aspect, family unity and circumstances" of each person being
considered for repatriation and to carry out repatriation "in an orderly and safe way, and with
respect for the individual human dignity of the person repatriated." [Article I, Para. 1,3]
As a refugee whose family fled communist forces, we know you are well aware of the struggle of
the Vietnamese diaspora with the trauma of involuntary migration. These individuals and their
families are Americans who are not familiar with the country they fled from. They may have
made mistakes in their youth, but many have turned their lives around. We urge you to honor the
humanitarian spirit and intention embodied in the 2008 US-Vietnam Agreement, and to halt
deportation of Southeast Asian refugees. To do otherwise would send thousands of refugees back
to countries they fled years ago, would tear apart thousands of families, and would significantly
disrupt immigrant and refugee communities across the U.S.

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