Many people of Vietnamese origin in the US may be deported under Mr. Trump

During the election campaign, Mr. Donald Trump repeatedly criticized illegal immigrants, even calling them “criminals” trying to “invade” America. He announced that he would carry out the largest deportation in US history immediately after taking office.

The warning is gradually coming true. The US President-elect has chosen former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director Thomas Homan, a hard-line immigration official, to be the “border czar” in charge of the deportation effort. large tissue. Mr. Trump’s advisory team is said to be drafting decrees so that he can implement the deportation plan on his first day in office.

Mr. Trump has not specified the groups that will be deported, but Le Thanh Mai, a Vietnamese immigration lawyer in Michigan, said this policy is expected to have a big impact on the Vietnamese community in the US.

“Policies of deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal records targeting people of Vietnamese origin may reappear in Mr. Trump’s new term,” lawyer Thanh Mai told reporters. VnExpress.

According to the US Census Bureau, about 2.3 million people of Vietnamese descent live in many states in this country, forming the fourth largest Asian population group, after people of Chinese, Indian and Filipino descent.

During his first term, Mr. Trump implemented a policy of tightening immigration control. ICE has issued deportation orders for about 10,000 Vietnamese people in a series of states, most of whom have green cards but have not yet become naturalized citizens and have criminal records.

ICE then launched a campaign to raid Vietnamese immigrants with criminal records, arresting more than 100 people and detaining them for many months awaiting deportation. The campaign was carried out even though Vietnam and the US signed a bilateral agreement in 2008, in which the two countries agreed that Vietnamese people who came to the US before July 12, 1995, when Vietnam and the US resumed diplomatic relations, will not be deported.

Of the 10,000 Vietnamese people who received deportation orders, about 8,000 came to the US before 1995. They initially did not object to the deportation order because they believed they were not in this category thanks to the 2008 bilateral agreement.

The Trump administration in its first term unilaterally reinterpreted the agreement, arguing that people with criminal records were not protected under expanded immigration laws. The US Ambassador to Vietnam at that time, Ted Osius, opposed this move and resigned and withdrew from the US State Department.

The Vietnamese community in many parts of the United States in 2018 organized protests, condemning this deportation policy as “unjust and cruel”.

“Many Vietnamese people came to the US when they were young, trying to resettle amid many difficulties and lack of support, so some made mistakes. But many of them were good and had a decent life, so they should not separate them from their families and jobs,” said Tania Pham, an immigration lawyer who assisted 40 Vietnamese people detained awaiting deportation during Mr. Trump’s first term.

After facing backlash from public opinion, the Trump administration at the end of 2018 withdrew the decision to deport the above group of Vietnamese people.

However, lawyer Tania warned that in his second term, Mr. Trump may learn from experience and apply more drastic measures, speeding up the deportation process before being opposed by all parties.

“The level of enforcement of deportation policies targeting people of Vietnamese origin this time may be more heavy-handed,” Tania said.

Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s top immigration adviser, said the second-term Trump administration will increase the number of deportees tenfold, to more than one million people per year. On November 18, Mr. Trump hinted that he would declare a national emergency and use the military to mass deport undocumented immigrants.

Lawyer Thanh Mai in Michigan agreed with Tania, saying that the scale of this deportation round will be larger than that of Mr. Trump’s first term, although he expressed skepticism about the possibility that the 47th President of the United States would declare temporary detention. state of emergency to deport immigrants.

US federal law does not allow the use of the military to enforce state law, including deportation, except for a few exceptions related to riots and foreign invasions, Thanh Mai explained. Mr. Trump has repeatedly tried to apply this exception but was unsuccessful due to obstacles from the courts.

Besides deporting illegal immigrants, Mr. Trump also mentioned a lot about attracting high-quality workers to the United States. Therefore, the US government will have to spread resources and time evenly to resolve the backlog of documents for this group of legal immigrant workers. “There is a high possibility that Mr. Trump will only increase ICE and police activities, instead of mobilizing the military to participate in the deportation campaign,” the female lawyer predicted.

But many people of Vietnamese origin in the US are living in anxiety and worry about the policies Mr. Trump may implement and have contacted the law office to ask for advice, lawyer Tania said.

One of them is Mr. Hoang Nguyen, 56 years old, who came from Vietnam to Orange County, California 40 years ago and worked in the electronics industry. California has the largest Vietnamese community in the US with more than 700,000 people, accounting for 35% of the Vietnamese American population in the country.

During Mr. Trump’s first term, ICE officers went to Mr. Hoang’s home and escorted him to a detention center in Los Angeles.

“They let me go home after 4 hours without giving a reason. The incident caused extreme stress for me and my family, forcing me to take steps to adjust my legal status at a cost of nearly 50,000 USD, but has not yet been resolved,” Mr. Hoang said.

Lawyer Tania supported Mr. Hoang during the first appeal process in 2017. Faced with the risk of being placed on the deportation list during Mr. Trump’s new term, Mr. Hoang plans to continue his legal fight, seeking legal assistance. law firm, non-profit organization supporting people of Vietnamese descent in the US.

“I’m very worried, afraid of being away from my loved ones, possibly losing my job, affecting my ability to support my children through college, not to mention the constant stress of the legal battle and the financial burden it causes. out,” Mr. Hoang shared.

“I just want to be close to my family and community for the remaining years in America. I want to do it the right way, by committing to readjusting my legal status, so that I am not considered an immigrant.” illegal immigration,” he said.