Stop Vietnamese Deportations
On January 22, the US and Vietnam signed an agreement to deport Vietnamese immigrants.
Approximately 1500 people, who entered the country after July 12, 1995 and who have final orders of deportation issued some time after they arrived in the US, will now face detention in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Detention centers and deportation.
This agreement unjustly punishes immigrants 2 or 3 times over for one conviction, violates their human rights and offers no recourse for families and community left behind, and further perpetuates US power over Vietnam and lack of accountability in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.
This petition is to demand the halt of the deportations, issued to begin March 22, 2008.
On January 22, the US and Vietnam signed an agreement to deport Vietnamese immigrants.
Approximately 1500 people, who entered the country after July 12, 1995 and who have final orders of deportation issued some time after they arrived in the US, will now face detention in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Detention centers and deportation.
This agreement unjustly punishes immigrants 2 or 3 times over for one conviction, violates their human rights and offers no recourse for families and community left behind, and further perpetuates US power over Vietnam and lack of accountability in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.
This petition is to demand the halt of the deportations, issued to begin March 22, 2008.
March 22, 2008
The Honorable Micheal Chertoff
Secretary
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Washington, D.C. 20528
Dear Secretary Chertoff:
We the undersigned demand that the Department of Homeland Security halt the deportation of the approximately 1,500 Vietnamese immigrants included in the recent Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The conditions of this repatriation agreement are unjust, violate human rights of the deportees, and perpetuate the US government%u2019s lack of accountability over the aftermath of the Vietnam-US War.
The Department of Homeland Security has yet to justify the conditions by which immigrants may fall under the repatriation agreement, a hypocritical betrayal to the Vietnamese American community whose existence in the US was directly a result of the intervention of US foreign military forces during a Vietnamese civil battle.
Those under this repatriation agreement are punished two or three times over for infractions the US seemingly arbitrarily defines as %u201Caggravated felonies,%u201D including some minor violations and misdemeanors. Many pending deportees have already served their time in immigration detention or criminal incarceration years ago. However, this agreement requires them to be detained a second time and deported%u2014three punishments for one conviction.
Some pending deportees have committed no crimes, but were denied a fair day in court. Others may have simply been refugees at sea for too long, and entered the US after 1997, when the US stopped accepting refugees of the Vietnam War.
On issues of human rights, those who stand to be deported must leave behind established families, friends and communities, and leave to a country which the US Commission of International Religious Freedom has sited recently that Vietnam%u2019s human rights violations remain dismal (Feb 2008). The US governments%u2019 own lack of discussion over the rehabilitation of deportees in Vietnam further violates their basic human rights. We stand in unity with other Vietnamese community efforts that protest the human rights violations of these deportations. These other community petitions have also been addressed to your attention.
The Department of Homeland Security has stated this agreement is a culmination of ten years of negotiation with Vietnam, which stands alongside decades of economic and diplomatic power plays that exploit every day people of both nations. At the same time the 2001 Vietnam Human Rights Act directly links non-humanitarian aid to the US%u2019s supervision of Vietnam%u2019s progress over human rights violations, the US will send deportees to Vietnam when human rights violations remain dismal.
We refuse to accept the conditions of this repatriation agreement and call for its immediate halt.
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It is unfair for those that commit crimes and served their time who have been a model citizen and paid their taxes since their release to be punished all over again. It should be done on a case by case basis. Ones who are repeat offenders should be sent back, but those who made a mistake and have rehabilitated should be given an oppertunity to leave a normal life.
Let them deport the Vietnamese. Most of these people have the knowledge to build bomb and use guns. They will bomb the VC. I am not trying to scare you VC. This is true. These things are very easy to learn. Just pick up a book and you can do it in a couple hours. Let the US government deport the Vietnamese, let them separate families; the children of these victims will bomb the White House. No kidding! Imagine if you know the US government deported your mother/father back to the VC and they died there. Would you hate the US for what they’ve done? Go to school and learn something useful and revenge!!!!! I am nobody special. I came to the US in 1987, held a US citizenship certificate, my hair is still dark and my eyes are still brown, I am Vietnamese no matter what, graduated from college, got a job and work my ass off to support my family/relative in Vietnam. I am paying tax in the US and contribute to the Vietnam’s economy by sending back US dollars. I am sure many of you out there are on the same boat. I ran into many younger people whom made mistake(s) when they were young and have been jailed/punished by the US law. They renewed their life. Many of them have family/children. They have stable job/business. They pay more tax $ than many of the Americans. A few of them have expressed they’d kill themselves before being deported. Some of them mentioned they’d ruin something in the US before they died so that the US government will get their message. This is completely wrong. The US is creating a big mess. There might be more than one 9-11 days in the near future. The VC is in danger for accepting these people. This might be a setup from the US side. VC, be aware! The US government can blow your ass away any time. Imagine if China declared war, the US will use the VC to cover their ass while they prepare the weapons to fight back. That’s one of the reasons why they accepted Vietnam into WTO.
There are 7,700 Vietnamese that have been or will soon be given orders of deportation for living Illegally in America with the possibility that number if stretched to it's limit could reach a million and the US Government want to force them back into the iron fist of a dictatorship that they are trying to escape while at the same time leaving the revolving door open for the 10 to 15 million illegal Mexicans living here, now what’s wrong with this picture? I spent nine years in Vietnam and the South Vietnamese people that I met loved America to the extent that most of them risked their lives to come here and what are we trying to do to show them our appreciation for the love they have for us and our country, we're trying to send them back into the hell hole they escaped from. I would like to remind our government of something written on our Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
ICE's headquarters is located in me town ATL ='( I kinda signed for 1 disclosed reason and 1000 others. Most of me friends are not origanilly from the US but were born here thats mainly mst of them.
For those Vietnamese who are Naturalized Citicen, you CAN be denaturalized and sent back to Vietnam. This petition is to stop all future deportation; so please join this petition and spread the word. The principle of this deportation is unfair justice. Why should I have to sit here and worry about a sex predator who is about to prey on another children? Why don't we deport him to a forest somewhere in Alaska so he can't prey on another children? Isn't that the same principle as Vietnam especially for those who don't even speak the LANGUAGE?
Please do not break up families, one mistake doesn't means a whole life time of separation from their family. Please re-consider........
I don't think the news are covering this issue. Perhaps whoever is in charge should consider local or national news stations to create a bigger community against this.
Hey Joe! fukee sukee if you no deport me
I feel that this is an unfair treament of these persons who have paid their time in prison. If an American citizen was to commit the same or worse crime, he or she would be able to do their time and still reside in the U.S.A. A person whose entire life is built in America-- except maybe for the first five or ten years of life-- can't be expected to return to a country they have lost ties with. This is an absurd and reckless agreement on behalf of the United States and Vietnam.
These people are not going home.
What Immigration is doing now is just plain ignorant. Deportation is not a must. They say America has changed, but really, it hasn't. If it wasn't for the diversity here, I wouldn't call this freedom. I just wanted make this point... If someone committed a crime, shouldn't their ACTIONS be judged, not their ETHNICITY???
Please if you are human don't deport them.
