Lawyers warn of deportation risk for Vietnamese in US when Trump returns

Throughout his election campaign, Trump criticized illegal immigrants, referring to them regularly as "criminals."

He has chosen former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Thomas Homan, known for his tough stance on immigration, to oversee border control in his second administration.

In his role as "border czar", Homan will be in charge of the southern and northern U.S. borders, as well as "all Maritime and Aviation Security," Trump said in his post on Truth Social, as his team is reportedly drafting executive orders to carry out deportation plans.

The Vietnamese community is expected to be impacted by the new policies, Le Thanh Mai, a U.S. lawyer of Vietnamese heritage based in Michigan, said.

"Policies to deport undocumented immigrants and immigrants with criminal records may reappear in Trump's new term."

About 2.3 million people of Vietnamese origin live in the U.S., making them the fourth largest Asian community in the country behind Chinese, Indians and Filipinos, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

In his first term as president, Trump had adopted policies to tighten immigration, with the ICE having handed deportation orders on around 10,000 Vietnamese across the U.S., most of them with criminal records and yet to gain citizenship.

It arrested over 100 Vietnamese immigrants with criminal records, detaining them for months as they waited for deportation.

The arrest was done despite the fact that Vietnam and the U.S. had signed an agreement in 2008 that states that Vietnamese who arrived before July 12, 1995, when the two countries reinstated diplomatic relations, would not face deportation.

The 10,000 Vietnamese who received deportation orders included 8,000 who arrived in the U.S. before 1995.

They initially believed they would not face deportation thanks to the 2008 agreement, but the Trump regime said the agreement would not protect those with criminal records.

The U.S. ambassador to Vietnam at the time, Ted Osius, opposed the decision and resigned from the Department of State in protest.

The Vietnamese community denounced the deportation plan, calling it "unfair and cruel."

"Many Vietnamese came to the U.S. when they were young and tried to integrate amid difficulties and lack of support, and so some of them made mistakes," Tania Pham, an immigration lawyer who helped 40 Vietnamese who were detained.

"But many of them have turned their lives around, living honorably, and should not be separated from their families and jobs."

After facing a public backlash, the administration decided not to go ahead with the deportation plan.

But an emboldened Trump in his second term could hasten deportation plans before he is met with opposition, Pham added.

Stephen Miller, Trump’s advisor on immigration, said the administration would increase the number of deportees by 10-fold to over a million people a year.

Trump has repeatedly vowed to use the military to carry out mass deportations.

U.S. federal laws do not allow the use of the army to carry out deportation, except in certain cases, Le said.

Trump has also spoken about attracting highly skilled workers to the U.S., which means resources would need to be split to deal with illegal immigrants.

"It is highly likely that Trump will only ramp up ICE and police activities, instead of mobilizing the army for deportation efforts," Pham said.

Several people of Vietnamese origin in the U.S. are worried about what Trump may do next, and have contacted with Pham's office for help, she said.

One of them is Hoang Nguyen, 56, who landed in California 40 years ago and is now working in the electronics industry.

During Trump’s first term, ICE officers visited Nguyen's house and took him to a cell in Los Angeles.

"They released me four hours later without an explanation," he said.

"The incident stressed me and my family out, and we had to carry out measures to change my legal status for a fee of nearly US$50,000. It has not been done yet."

Pham helped him with his legal efforts back in 2017.

He now plans to continue his legal fight, seeking out law firms and NGOs that support people of Vietnamese origin in the U.S.

"I'm worried about having to be apart from my loved ones, even losing my job, which would affect my ability to support my children going to college," he said.

"I just want to be near my family and my community in the years I have left in the U.S. I want to do it the right way, by adjusting my legal status, so that I will no longer be considered an illegal immigrant."