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.
This is not fair...A lot of people do minor crimes when they were young and foolish but to punish them now and give them added stress and grief years down the line and to deport them is wrong.
once deported, the deportee may never connect with his/her family ever again and this is heartbreaking.
The Vietnamese like many other races that faces deportation that came to the U.S. to escape the communism and have a "FREEDOM" are no being betrayed by the country they THOUGHT they can trust. After years of hard work, starting from nothing and leaving all everything that they once knew behind. Now that they're starting to have a foundation in this place (U.S) they call home, the very own country they trusted are no kicking them back to the place that they were ran away from. Isn't that like sending them to hell? What is our law maker thinking? OR ARE THEY NOT?
For those that committed a crime and do their time through the US Judicial System should not be penalized after-ward through deportation. This would be double jeopardy.
They have been punished for what they've done in prison, and that punishment is enough for them to learn. Double or tripling, and even increasing their punishment by sending them back is not fair at all. Additionally, sending them back and splitting apart families is wrong.
Vietnam claimed that they have human rights but in reality this right is violated by the Vietman Autorities. Who can assure that these deportees life will be safe after they returned. Not only that they will get mistreated but their life could be threaten. The United States governement forgot about the incident back in 1996 when the Vietnam Governmetn Killed the deportees that were sent back.
I think it is enough that they served their time. Deportation back to a country they escaped from is not just.
I am a Vietnamese refugee who came to the US in 1978. I committed a violent crime in 1997 when I was attacked by 5 men who were chanting racist slurs. I went to prison for 5 years for attempted murder and after i was released I was re-detained by ICE. I did another 8 months in some secluded county jail in northern Florida. I was released in 2003 but am under strict supervision. I feel like I did what I had to do in order to see the next day but unfortunately there was no self-defense law back in 97. Now, I own my own business, recently got married, and have a new daughter. I live in fear of being deprted. I have been in the US for 97% of my life. I hope that this deprtation order is on a case-by-case basis. Some people make mistakes. Although i do not agree with rapists and pedophiles, or random murders. Deporting Vietnamese back to Vietnam is like a death sentence.
Some people make mistakes and turn their lives around. These are the ones that deserve a second chance at life in this free country. Deporting them back to Vietnam is like a death sentence. The communist will treat them like traders and send them to re-education camp...if they're lucky.
Deporting people people based on one non-violent conviction is absurded! Many of the people facing deportation have basically grown up in America, love this country and are hard-working, productive citizens. Whatever happened to basic human rights?
I am writing this on behalf of my brother who has committed a crime, but is serving his time--now he faces deportation! He's been here since he was 6 years old and is now 38 years old. He doesn't have a single memory of Vietnam. I dont think it's fair to deport individuals who have lived here the majority of their lives. Deportation may be a way to send them back to their home country, but how can you say it's their home country if they lived here for 90% of their life? They are working individuals, got educated here and have families here. Seems very unjust!
deportation is unjust
