Vietnam Agrees to Accept Deportees from the U.S.

Mark Liu
1/23/08

Yesterday, the United States and Vietnam agreed to a memorandum of agreement that would allow the repatriation of Vietnamese immigrants who entered the U.S. on or after July 12, 1995.  The agreement goes into affect 60 days after the signing of the agreement.  This would affect 1500 Vietnamese immigrants who came on or after Vietnam and the U.S. began to have normalized relations.

 According to Kelly Nantel, spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), there are about 8000 Vietnamese Americans who are in deportation proceedings or have received orders to be deported.  Only 200 Vietnamese Americans who are slated for deportation are in the custody of the U.S. thanks to a Supreme Court ruling in 2001 that stated that authorities could only detain immigrants under deportation orders for up to six months if their birth country would not accept their deportation order.

This new agreement shows the US government's unrelenting efforts to target immigrants and other vulnerable communities.  It puts undocumented Vietnamese at risk like other undocumented immigrants.  Vietnamese who have their green cards but have committed violations under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 will also be deported.  Similar deportation procedures have devastated other communities such as the recent agreement between the US and Cambodia.  The US needs to stop treating people like criminals and have comprehensive immigrant reform to truly address the root causes of migration.  People come here to work and be united with their family and deportation will tear families apart.

Hai Binh Nguyen, member of VietUnity, a Vietnamese American organization dedicated to social change, draws parallels with other vulnerable immigrant communities.  “This new agreement puts undocumented Vietnamese at risk like other undocumented immigrants and shows the US government's unrelenting efforts to target immigrants and other vulnerable communities.  VietUnity's response is that the US needs to stop treating people like criminals and have comprehensive immigrant reform to truly address the root causes of migration.  People come here to work and be united with their family and deportation will tear families apart.  To clarify, the agreement is NOT to deport those who have green cards but have past aggravated felony, which is currently what Cambodians face.  However, it may be the first step to getting there.”

A similar agreement between U.S. and Cambodia has wreaked havoc in the Cambodian American community.  According to PrYSM, a grassroots Southeast Asian American youth group, 50% of Cambodian Americans with deportation orders are the primary breadwinners in their families.  Many Cambodian Americans are deported because of petty non-violent crimes that they have already been punished for.  Many of the Cambodian Americans who have been deported face immense difficulty when they are repatriated, because of language and culture difficulties.

Comments on this Article? Go to our forums