Trump Administration Hopes Vietnam Will Take More Deportees

Coming from a viet: yes, deport them all.

Conversations between the U.S. government and Vietnam have immigration advocates concerned about the fate of thousands of Vietnamese immigrants, many of whom arrived in the U.S. as refugees.

A State Department spokesperson confirmed the meeting to HuffPost but declined to divulge the full details of the “private diplomatic conversations.” The spokesperson noted, however, that “the U.S. Government and the Vietnamese Government continue to discuss our respective positions relative to Vietnamese citizens who are now subject to final orders of removal.”

The prospect has been a source of concern for civil rights groups, who fear the two governments could be renegotiating the memorandum of understanding (MOU) the countries established in 2008. The agreement dictates the individuals who are eligible for deportation.

Katrina Dizon Mariategue, director of national policy at the nonprofit Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC) told HuffPost that a possible change in the memorandum could leave roughly 8,600 Vietnamese immigrants, who have orders of removal, subject to deportation. Many of these individuals received the orders after being convicted of crimes. But Mariategue points out that they’ve already served their time and most have long avoided contact with the criminal justice system, holding steady jobs and establishing families.

“We can’t say for sure whether this week’s meetings between the United States and Vietnam will ultimately result in a change in the MOU, but we do know that the Trump administration has been pushing hard to escalate deportations of Southeast Asian Americans,” she said.

“We’re already receiving emails from individuals expressing their concern about these meetings and how their families will be separated because of it,” she added.

According to the MOU, Vietnamese immigrants who arrived in the U.S. prior to July 12, 1995, are currently not eligible for deportation. The agreement hasn’t been changed since it was signed. However, the Trump administration’s adherence to the MOU has been questioned. Mariategue explained that in August the government tried to deport individuals who arrived before the 1995 date ― something the administration admitted to in court. The government was not successful.

Ted Osius, the former U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, revealed in an April issue of Foreign Service Journal that he was instructed to pressure the Vietnamese government to repatriate more than 8,000 people ― most of whom were refugees who had “fled South Vietnam on boats and through the jungle” after the Vietnam War. Osius said that the Trump administration’s repatriation efforts ultimately resulted in his departure from his diplomatic post last year.

“The majority targeted for deportation — sometimes for minor infractions — were war refugees who had sided with the United States, whose loyalty was to the flag of a nation that no longer exists,” Osius wrote. “And they were to be ‘returned’ decades later to a nation ruled by a communist regime with which they had never reconciled. I feared many would become human rights cases, and our government would be culpable.”

The majority targeted for deportation — sometimes for minor infractions — were war refugees who had sided with the United States, whose loyalty was to the flag of a nation that no longer exists.
Ted Osius, the former U.S. ambassador to Vietnam

With rumblings of a change in the MOU ahead, the Vietnamese community is beginning to express concern, Mariategue said. As a SEARAC report details, detention and deportation take an immense toll on family members, including added financial stress as well as the emotional and physical stress of having families broken apart.

“A revised MOU will almost certainly lead to increased deportations, and this impacts not just a single person with a removal order but extends to the individual’s wife, children, parents and community at large,” Mariategue said.

Vietnam is one of nine countries that Immigration and Customs Enforcement classifies as “recalcitrant” because their governments routinely refuse to issue the travel documents required for the U.S. to carry out a deportation. Along with the thousands of Vietnamese nationals awaiting deportation with final orders of removal as of September, according to ICE, an additional 88 are confined to detention centers.

But a change in the MOU would be consistent with Trump’s increased crackdowns on the Southeast Asian community and added pressure on countries to take in those with final orders. Back in July, the administration slapped visa sanctions on high-ranking officials from Laos and Myanmar, both considered recalcitrant, amid disagreements over deportations.

Such sanctions eventually proved successful against Cambodia, a country that has long been uneasy with the concept of repatriations.

While Cambodia consented to take in a limited number of deportees following a 2002 agreement, protests and backlash from the Cambodian-American community along with growing humanitarian concerns prompted the government to stop issuing travel documents for deportation last summer. However, the Trump administration responded in September, blocking high-ranking Cambodian officials and their families from traveling to the U.S. Threatened by the visa sanctions, the Cambodian government looked into accepting about 26 deportees. The number of travel documents nearly doubled by the end of the year. In April, the largest group of Cambodians, more than 40 individuals, were deported in U.S. history.

“We are seeing increased enforcement efforts, not just to detain those who are already vulnerable to removal but to pressure countries to expand how many people they are willing to accept overall,” Mariategue said. “It is clear that they are not taking into account factors such as impact on families and communities, nor the humanitarian implications of deporting refugees.”

https://asktran.com/2018/12/12/trump-administration-hopes-vietnam-will-take-more-deportees/

I am all for mass deportations, but this seems retarded. These people are in their 60s and 70s at this point. Who cares. They are all going to die soon anyway. This is a distraction from not building the wall, not deporting Hispanics, and not Making America Great Again.

I think we need to be very careful here. Those that came here as war refugees run a sincere risk of being treated brutally or even killed if they are returned to either Cambodia or Vietnam.

Any of them that can prove they were working with or for the US as far as I’m concerned should be granted permanent status here because that’s the deal we made with them at the time.

If we can’t keep our word as a country particularly to local friendlies in a conflict zone it just becomes that much harder to operate and puts our troops present and future in that much greater danger.

This is not an area where we should be short or narrow sighted.

And the question is:
When we grant a person asylum, when do they return to their country to help rebuild their country???

Many of these individuals received the orders after being convicted of crimes.

Yes, Im all for deporting my kins if they are criminals.

What crimes were they committed of and when?

Are they capital crimes?

Do I look like an FBI database? If you can get me a listed of peeps facing deportation, I’ll match it with the crimes they commit,

No, right now you look like a hate filled xenophobe.

These are people that fought side by side with our soldiers and saved many of them. I think they deserve a little more consideration than illegals rushing across our southern border.

We brought them here with a promise of freedom for their support during the war and owe them every bit as much as we owe our own citizens.

For many, deportation to Vietnam could mean torture, imprisonment, and or death so I think this bears a lot more consideration than blindly supporting their removal absent the relevant facts.

Its great that im “xenophobic” against my kins. Race cards dont work on me, hon, I have one myself.
Along your lines of logic, Im guessing that returning soldiers have a licence to rob banks and rape children? They should know what the consequences were before committing crimes while they are refugees.

I"m not your “hon” or anything else.

We don’t deport US citizens so obviously we’re talking about foreign citizens hence yes, xenophobia applies.

Any of these people who have committed crimes either are currently serving sentences or have completed their sentences just a like returning US soldiers who commit crimes so obviously nobody is getting a license to commit crimes by being here.

Your entire premise is idiotic and xenophobic.

So what are they again? Unlike photons, they are not two things at once. Their naturalization are granted, and can be taken away if they are bad guests. Youre building your entire “premise” on attacking my ccharacters, Ms. Alinsky. Very cute.

Like I said, I am “xenophobic” Vietnamese and I concur the move to deport criminals out of the US, hon.

There is no rebuilding that place other than the second atomic bomb drop in Asia. Really.

The only way a naturalized citizen can be stripped of their citizenship is if they commit a serious felony during the 7 year probationary period following taking the oath or if it can be shown they obtained their citizenship fraudulently.

No, my argument is exactly what I stated originally.

We brought them here with a promise of freedom for their support during the war and owe them every bit as much as we owe our own citizens.

For many, deportation to Vietnam could mean torture, imprisonment, and or death so I think this bears a lot more consideration than blindly supporting their removal absent the relevant facts.

You on the other hand simply want to deport them all without any consideration period of what crimes they committed, when, or anything else simply because they are Vietnamese.

Only one of us is even thinking here.

And they promised to behave. Some of them did not.

And none of us knew what crime they have committed. Nice thinking cap there, cap’t, I love me some ad hominem.

You seem to be lost so let me refresh your memory.

You blindly call for their deportation without knowing anything about what crimes were committed or when.

All of them have either paid for those crimes already or are currently serving sentences. That means they have paid for their crimes already or are currently doing so.

A percentage of any population will commit crimes natives, legal, and illegal immigrants, as well as refugees.

This is a special class of people who put it all on the line to support the US war effort in Vietnam and who unlike most deportees may well face imprisonment, torture, or death for giving us that support if they are returned either to Cambodia or Vietnam so I think each one needs to be reviewed carefully to determine if whatever offense they committed in the US deserves that outcome.

As I said, only one of us is even thinking here.

I love my tax at work feeding criminals.

They are very “forgiving” if you know who to bribe. I know the locals well, I lived there for 14 years! Like I said, bad guests get the door. They received help to fight for their country’s freedom, and again when they need a place to flee to.

They betray the Americans’ trust in them, and its time to go. Common courtesy, really. Americans get involved in a war they did not have to (well, if we are talking communism containment, thats a different story, since Viets and Chinese dont get along too well anyway, and thats another different story).

Youre talking like its the Vietnamese that helped American in a war that they did not have to fight, when its the other way around. We should be thankful for the US involvement, and this is no way to pay back your helper. They of all people should know the consequence of possible deportation when they commit their crime.

Not all Vietnamese refugees were military personnel. The majority just happen to be at the right place and the right time. Some are “related” to the military personnel being recused (and by related, I meant neighbors). These are the people Im speaking out against:

https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/08/24/san-jose-crackdown-on-vietnamese-gang-leads-to-cops-arrest-guns-drugs-alligator/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_to_Kill_(gang)

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/vietnamese-drug-gang-dumped-bodies-philadelphia-river-cops-article-1.1920468

https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/29/nyregion/10-members-of-violent-vietnamese-gang-indicted.html

http://articles.latimes.com/1988-04-04/local/me-314_1_orange-county-schools

http://archive.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/04/23/a_little_nudge_to_play_offers_aimless_teens_a_turnaround/

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/vietnamese-gang-leader-pleads-guilty-to-murder/

http://articles.latimes.com/1994-07-17/local/me-16555_1_drug-cartels-asian-gangs

https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/06/nyregion/asian-gangs-new-york-special-report-immigrant-waves-asia-bring-underworld-ashore.html

They bring the gangster BS from Vietnam to here, and Im sure these gangsters will do just fine in that communist hellhole they fled from. You think ICE is deporting illegal Vietnamese jaywalkers? Not exactly the angels youre fluffing them up to be, hon, some of these.

I suggest you do some research on the Vietnam war as well.

The people in these gangs are too young to even be part of the original refugees.

Communists are not forgiving of people they deem to be traitors.

Everyone who aided the US during the war who remained in Vietnam or who returns was or is subject to charges of treason and war crimes.

Again, you aren’t even willing to think for a moment about whether or not they committed a serious felony of any sort much less when their crimes were committed. Many according to the cited article never committed any serious crime at all.

Again, what crimes did they commit and when? Are they death penalty offenses?

As for them being grateful? That’s a laugh, we had the war won and left instead of prosecuting it to the end and as a result the communist took over.

We should have either stayed out completely or seen it through to the end.

Refugees do not promise to never commit a crime in the US if allowed in, they are simply people and a percentage of any population sooner or later commits a crime.

If you can show that any of these people pose a risk if they are allowed to remain here then deportation even under the circumstances would be reasonable, if you can’t, it isn’t.

Again, you blindly say deport them all with zero consideration of whether the punishment fits the crime no matter what the consequences to these people.

Gangs have existed in this country since it’s inception, they didn’t bring anything new with them.

It’s more of a generic statement.
When do the middle easterners return home?
When do the Somalia’s return home? When do the Central American’s, Mexicans return home.

It doesn’t take much of a crime at all to have permanent residence receded… It is not out of the question for instance for me to be involved in a traffic accident where someone is injured to see me removed from the UK. I am generally pretty careful of my comments about the UK on here for the very same reason.

The US is not much different in that regard… circumstances get out from under you in even minor situations an you can lose your green card and residency…

What are teens and kids? Youre trying pretty hard here.

These articles dated back in the 80s and 90s, until now.

Oh, I guess they would enjoy being in the gulag more have the US not interfered. I thought you were “thinking” here.

They did not come here last year. You can apply for residency after 5 years, and if they dont, thats on them.

Yes, the US is much different in that regard.