The rhetoric from the White House - as we know - spreads to action. Unfortunately this means detainment for around 90-100 Vietnamese American U.S. residents as well as setting a precedent for thousands of others. From the Huffington Post:
Dozens of members of the Vietnamese community, including some who have lived in the U.S. for decades, face an uncertain future in the U.S..
An estimated 95 Vietnamese U.S. residents are expected to be detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and could face deportation, Nancy Nguyen, the executive director of organization Vietlead, told HuffPost. The majority of those are refugees [...]
Yet recent detentions don’t just include those who are eligible for deportation under that memorandum; they also include Vietnamese people who arrived in the U.S. before 1995. More than 8,500 Vietnamese U.S. residents who have orders of removal for various reasons, and experts are concerned these detentions will set a dangerous precedent and put thousands of lives in jeopardy
And from the Pacific Standard:
A joint community alert issued Monday by a group of Southeast Asian-American community-rights organizations warned that Vietnamese immigrants with final removal orders are, more than before, "vulnerable to potential arrest, detention, and deportation." Late last month, the notice said, Washington submitted 95 cases to Hanoi to be processed.
The alert, coupled with reports of rampant detentions of Vietnamese and other Southeast Asian-American communities is cause for worry for those who fear seeing their communities become yet another flashpoint in the administration's anti-immigration policy.
"There is urgency now because [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] has ramped up their aggression against immigrant communities," says Dieu Huynh, a community outreach coordinator for San Jose Vice Mayor Magdalena Carrasco and an organizer with the grassroots group VietUnity-PACT.
Here is the link to the Joint Community Alert from SEARAC @ http://www.searac.org/new/joint-community-alert-vietnamese-vulnerable-deportation (below is a portion of the text):
Joint community alert from:
VietLead, APIROC, Mekong-NYC, VietUnity-East Bay, VietUnity-South Bay, Dorchester Organizing Training-Initiative, SEARAC
Vietnamese Vulnerable to Deportation
At this time, we believe that Vietnamese community members with final removal orders are vulnerable to potential arrest, detention, and deportation. ICE has used more aggressive tactics such as threatening community members with self-deportation and forcing folks to sign Vietnamese citizenship applications. Over last several weeks, ICE has re-arrested individuals with final removal orders that they were unable to deport in the past.
We have learned that on on September 21, 2017, the United States submitted 95 cases to the Government of Vietnam for processing and at the end of October 2017 into November 2017, a Vietnamese delegation will arrive in the United States to conduct interviews in Georgia. We know these cases include both pre-1995 and post-1995 cases.
Please be aware:
If you have a final removal order, do not leave the country. Seek immediate legal help if you have traveled outside of the country in the past (see pro bono legal list below).
If you have loved ones who will soon be released from prison, or are currently in detention, seek legal support.
If you are going for a check in, do not go alone - have family, friends, and local organizations accompany you.
If you have a final order of removal and ICE has notified you of a new check-in date, please contact Asian Law Caucus at (415) 896-1701, Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Los Angeles at (888) 349 9695 or in Vietnamese at (800) 267-7395. They can help you assess the risk that you may be detained and assist you in planning for that possibility.
