Republicans question Trump plan to deport Vietnamese refugees, some in US over 20 years

[left-of-center2012]

Two of Republicans’ leading voices on foreign affairs are questioning the Trump administration’s moves to deport thousands of Vietnamese refugees, a policy that would reverberate particularly strongly in California. It could affect more than 7,000 people.

California Rep. Ed Royce, the outgoing House Foreign Affairs Chairman, and his successor, Rep. Mike McCaul of Texas, sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen on Thursday saying they were “deeply concerned by reports of a new Administration policy to deport certain Vietnamese-Americans who have lived in the United States for longer than 23 years.”

News of the change in policy came to light last week, when a spokesperson for the U.S. embassy in Hanoi told The Atlantic that the Trump administration is reinterpreting a 2008 agreement between the United States and Vietnam on who is eligible for deportation.

It’s part of a larger immigration crackdown by President Donald Trump and his White House, which is also targeting Laotian, Lao Hmong and Cambodian refugees from the Vietnam War era.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article223391190.html

[Iliyah]

1. At least 38 years.

Huge communities in California where it also includes Hmongs.

[riversedge]

3. My god! the Hmongs?? They helped us! This can not stand!!

We have 2 Hmong (children of the parents who came here years ago) who have married my nephew and a niece). They are beside themselves at this point--wondering if their parents--and aunts and uncles will be deported.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

2. I have to assume many are now American citizens and elderly......

Yeah, like that is a great idea from Trump. This is so wrong.

[Ohiogal]

4. He just wants to be cruel

Plus, it affects California the most, a state he hates.

God, I hate him. I want him GONE!

[Squinch]

5. Yes. Many republicans will be very concerned before they send these

people away from the only life they've known for decades.

They will be very concerned, indeed. Then they'll vote for it.

[PatSeg]

9. Many have children born in the U.S.

and run thriving businesses. They were my neighbors and co-workers when I lived in California. This is absolute insanity.

[Squinch]

10. That will concern republicans too. Right before they deport them.

[PatSeg]

12. I'm sure a lot Vietnamese-Americans

ARE republicans! They tend to be rather conservative as I recall.

[Squinch]

13. That will REALLY concern republican legislators. Right before they

vote to deport them.

[PatSeg]

14. How many more voters can they afford to lose?

I see the party self-destructing very rapidly. They've alienated almost everyone except a small rabid base. Even their corporate overlords are finally pulling away from them. They can't appear to do anything right.

It took an orange clownish oaf in the White House to finally bring them down.

[duforsure]

6. He'll then if enabled and allowed to,

Start calling for other minorities to also be deported , and religions he doesn't like, using National Security , and claiming our borders and immigration policies are putting us in danger, when its really him and the republicans who are endangering us the most .

[treestar]

7. All of these various immigration deals

coming out of the woodwork as Dotard goes to every one to make a negative out of it.

Black Mauritunians, the Vietnam agreement being interpreted against the immigrants, trying to limit asylum in spite of the rules surrounding it, happening to find Temporary Protected Status no longer necessary for every country in question when even Republicans saw it necessary before - just extreme interpretations everywhere.

[SHRED]

8. Many will be killed or imprisoned most likely when they return

45 is evil.

[Fla Dem]

11. What about Cuban refugees?

For several decades thereafter, in what became known as the "Wet foot, Dry foot" policy, a Cuban caught on the waters between the two nations (with "wet feet" ) would summarily be sent home or to a third country. One who makes it to shore ("dry feet" ) gets a chance to remain in the United States, and later would qualify for expedited "legal permanent resident" status in accordance with the 1966 Act and eventually U.S. citizenship.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_feet,_dry_feet_policy

But how many actually got US citizenship? Will Trump deport them? Probably not. Marco Rubio, himself a child of technically illegal immigrants. But is very forthcoming in supporting Trump's immigration policies.

Neither of Rubio's parents was a U.S. citizen at the time of Rubio's birth,[4][5] but his parents applied for U.S. citizenship and were naturalized in 1975.[3] Some relatives of Rubio's were admitted to the U.S. as refugees.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Rubio