By Jessie Mangaliman The Mercury News (San Jose, California, USA)
In two months, the U.S. government will begin deporting more than 8,000 illegal Vietnamese immigrants as the result of a long-sought repatriation agreement signed Tuesday by Washington and Hanoi.
The pact deals with a once-verboten subject in the emigre community - the forced return of Vietnamese nationals to their communist homeland - and it underscores how close Vietnam and the United States have become.
In addition, the muted reaction Tuesday in San Jose's 100,000-strong Vietnamese community illustrated how much emigre politics have changed in the once rigidly anti-communist community.
Although some worried that the communist regime might retaliate against repatriated emigres, most Vietnamese-Americans interviewed Tuesday seemed to view the agreement as a natural outcome of the growing ties between two former enemies.
"It's normal," said Hoang Co Dinh of San Jose, a member of the Vietnam pro-democracy group Viet Tan.
Antoinette Haupt, a Palo Alto hairdresser who immigrated from Vietnam four years before the Vietnam War ended in 1975, called the agreement a good step to address illegal immigration.
"If you take illegals from one country, you should take them from all countries," said Haupt, who in the past has joined demonstrations denouncing Hanoi. "It has to be equal."
Under the renewable, five-year agreement signed in Hanoi by Vietnamese Foreign Ministry officials and Julie L. Myers, assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement can now repatriate undocumented Vietnamese who have been ordered deported by an immigration judge.
Most of the illegal immigrants - about 7,300 Vietnamese - have criminal convictions that made them subject to deportation, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Others overstayed visitors visas.
It was unclear Tuesday how many of the undocumented Vietnamese live in San Jose and the rest of the Bay Area. But Santa Clara County has the second largest concentration of Vietnamese in the country, so it's suspected that hundreds of undocumented Vietnamese live here.
Many who were ordered deported were released on parole from immigration detention. These include Vietnamese who completed jail time for crimes that made them eligible for deportation. Although they were required to regularly report to immigration officers, many were were able to establish semi-normal lives and obtain work permits because they were in legal limbo.
A U.S. Supreme Court decision prevented the federal government from holding the undocumented immigrants in detention for more than six months.
The repatriation of the Vietnamese has been in limbo for more than a decade since the United States stopped admitting refugees from Vietnam in the early 1990s.
Even with a judge's order in hand, the U.S. government was unable to deport undocumented Vietnamese because Hanoi refused to accept them. But as diplomatic and economic ties grew since the United States lifted a trade embargo in 1994 and normalized relations a year later, discussions of repatriating undocumented Vietnamese began in earnest.
"Agreements such as this are the building blocks of diplomacy," Myers said in a news release. "This agreement allows us to carry out a judge's order to remove individuals from our country in a safe and humane manner."
The U.S. government will pay for the cost of deporting the Vietnamese nationals, a process that is expected to begin two months from now. About 6,400 have final deportation orders, and an additional 1,668 are in deportation proceedings, said Mike Keegan, a spokesman for ICE in Washington, D.C.
Loc Vu, a former colonel in the South Vietnam army who now runs a refugee resettlement agency in San Jose, said he agrees that the United States is simply trying to enforce its own immigration laws. But he expressed concern about the treatment of those deported once in Vietnam.
"Maybe they will be welcomed at first," he said. "Then after a few months, who knows?"
The deportation of the Vietnamese nationals will have a far-reaching impact on the lives of their families. Many will leave behind children, parents, husbands and wives who are U.S. citizens or living legally here.
"Does it really justify breaking up families?" said Diem Do, another member of Viet Tan. "To me this is a very emotional issue. I look at this as more of a humanitarian issue."
Contact Jessie Mangaliman at jmangaliman@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5794.
The pact deals with a once-verboten subject in the emigre community - the forced return of Vietnamese nationals to their communist homeland - and it underscores how close Vietnam and the United States have become.
In addition, the muted reaction Tuesday in San Jose's 100,000-strong Vietnamese community illustrated how much emigre politics have changed in the once rigidly anti-communist community.
Although some worried that the communist regime might retaliate against repatriated emigres, most Vietnamese-Americans interviewed Tuesday seemed to view the agreement as a natural outcome of the growing ties between two former enemies.
"It's normal," said Hoang Co Dinh of San Jose, a member of the Vietnam pro-democracy group Viet Tan.
Antoinette Haupt, a Palo Alto hairdresser who immigrated from Vietnam four years before the Vietnam War ended in 1975, called the agreement a good step to address illegal immigration.
"If you take illegals from one country, you should take them from all countries," said Haupt, who in the past has joined demonstrations denouncing Hanoi. "It has to be equal."
Under the renewable, five-year agreement signed in Hanoi by Vietnamese Foreign Ministry officials and Julie L. Myers, assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement can now repatriate undocumented Vietnamese who have been ordered deported by an immigration judge.
Most of the illegal immigrants - about 7,300 Vietnamese - have criminal convictions that made them subject to deportation, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Others overstayed visitors visas.
It was unclear Tuesday how many of the undocumented Vietnamese live in San Jose and the rest of the Bay Area. But Santa Clara County has the second largest concentration of Vietnamese in the country, so it's suspected that hundreds of undocumented Vietnamese live here.
Many who were ordered deported were released on parole from immigration detention. These include Vietnamese who completed jail time for crimes that made them eligible for deportation. Although they were required to regularly report to immigration officers, many were were able to establish semi-normal lives and obtain work permits because they were in legal limbo.
A U.S. Supreme Court decision prevented the federal government from holding the undocumented immigrants in detention for more than six months.
The repatriation of the Vietnamese has been in limbo for more than a decade since the United States stopped admitting refugees from Vietnam in the early 1990s.
Even with a judge's order in hand, the U.S. government was unable to deport undocumented Vietnamese because Hanoi refused to accept them. But as diplomatic and economic ties grew since the United States lifted a trade embargo in 1994 and normalized relations a year later, discussions of repatriating undocumented Vietnamese began in earnest.
"Agreements such as this are the building blocks of diplomacy," Myers said in a news release. "This agreement allows us to carry out a judge's order to remove individuals from our country in a safe and humane manner."
The U.S. government will pay for the cost of deporting the Vietnamese nationals, a process that is expected to begin two months from now. About 6,400 have final deportation orders, and an additional 1,668 are in deportation proceedings, said Mike Keegan, a spokesman for ICE in Washington, D.C.
Loc Vu, a former colonel in the South Vietnam army who now runs a refugee resettlement agency in San Jose, said he agrees that the United States is simply trying to enforce its own immigration laws. But he expressed concern about the treatment of those deported once in Vietnam.
"Maybe they will be welcomed at first," he said. "Then after a few months, who knows?"
The deportation of the Vietnamese nationals will have a far-reaching impact on the lives of their families. Many will leave behind children, parents, husbands and wives who are U.S. citizens or living legally here.
"Does it really justify breaking up families?" said Diem Do, another member of Viet Tan. "To me this is a very emotional issue. I look at this as more of a humanitarian issue."
Contact Jessie Mangaliman at jmangaliman@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5794.
12 comments:
4000 000 Vietnamese living illegally in Cambodia?
There are 5,000,000 to 6,000,000
Yuons living illegally in Cambodia today and continue to come in by the treaty between Hun Sen and Pham Van Dong in 1982 and 1985.
Very soon Cambodia become yuon's land just like Kampuchea Krom.
Good to see US strongly Deportation those yuons back to there communist homeland. At least US has reduce a few yuon's ganges or home invasions in California and Texas.
All the deported undocumented Vietnamese immigrants should be sent directly to Cambodia -- not Vietnam.
Those vietnamesees must be sent to Vietnam to struggle freedom in Vietnam in order to change "vietnam communist" to "vietnam republic".
a vietnamese in hanoi
good idea Hanoi Vietnamese.
Bad idea 4:06 who afraid to identify himself. The product of Vietnamese illegals should be sent to Vietnam not Cambodia. We don't want your repossessed gang shit.
Have your people go back to where they belong and help reshape your own country. We don't need your contribution in Cambodia. We don't have enough resource to accomodate anymore illegals.
KonKHMER
Domn't vory much Ahj Kwack Hun Xen will legalize the law to allowed those Fucking Youn to buy land and live legally soon!
May Ah Hun Xen children and grand children be fucked by the Vietcong!
no put them on the ocean lol
glad the US finally came up with law to curb 'illegals' from coming to live here. same law should apply to 'illegal' vietnamese in Cambodia. if they want to come to Cambodia, they have to apply, respect the local law, respect our culture, traditional, speak our Khmer language and so on. Remember, Cambodia is not America, and Khmer do not have much tolerance for illegal Vietnamese living in Cambodia. So, taste your own medicine, ILLEGAL.
it's about time the US should have this law to curb illegals; and Cambodia should follow next to curb illegal vietnamese.
illegal vietnamese should stay on to struggle in their own country so they could bring changes to their own country. if they keep escaping to a third world country like the US, Cambodia, and so on, how how can they bring changes to their own country. they have to face the challenges in their own country, instead of escaping from those challenges, whatever that may be. this is how people could bring about changes by struggling and facing it, not by escape and be illegal in Cambodia or the US.
everybody here who think there voiceing there opinion just stop speaking out of your ass,If you guys could only use your ass to think it would just be wonderful. every race has people in trouble with the law,and every race came over here because they had some problem in there home country.just tell me is your race perfect and has not commited a crime? should you race your family,friends get deported to?
vietnamese are like a bunch of invasive species...they are loud, rude, greedy, selfish and inconsiderate of others. The USA should deport all them back to their hell hole. I know I will get a backlash of comments but thats ok...others know what i am talkin 'bout.
My neighborhood in Portland, Maine was exposed to the terror waged by Vietnamese and Cambodian gang warriors in the late 1990s.
These warriors (age range was 20-30, but they posed as younger men), maimed and murdered innocent, hi-school-aged white kids; they raped impoverished and ignorant US adolescent females and bore babies with others like them in order to "work the Welfare system," as one explained to me; they robbed with guns, severely harmed people's pets, and distributed drugs and violence everywhere.
Most of these men could not be rehabilitated as they were in and out of jail repeatedly, finally ending up in prison;others were true psychopaths, with no sense of empathy or conscience. You can't fix a psychopath.
I applaud the deportation of these people who committed heinous crimes and caused immense pain and suffering not only to US citizens, but to their own innocent and lovely families, over many years in Portland, Maine.
I just hope the system deports only the recidivists, and not
the innocent.
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