The Trump Administration is Failing to Uphold its Commitments to Vietnamese Refugees

Last week, the civil rights group Asian Americans Advancing Justice filed suit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the detainment of dozens of Vietnamese refugees across the country. Beyond the ethical dubiousness of the detentions, they represent a profound sacrifice by the Trump administration—of a long-standing pledge by the United States government to Vietnamese refugees and to Hanoi, in favor of campaign promises to crack down on immigration.

In January of 2008, under former President George W. Bush, the U.S. signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Vietnam that all Vietnamese refugees without criminal convictions—as well as anyone who came over prior to July 12th, 1995, the date the two countries restored diplomatic relations—would remain in the U.S. The agreement laid the foundations for Hanoi to accept the deportations of those who did not fall in those categories.

Read the full article from Pacific Standard Magazine here.