RENEGING

U.S. May Break Pact and Deport Thousands of Vietnamese Immigrants: Report

Ex-ambassador says Trump admin seeks to kick out thousands who are legal residents, but not citizens.

The Trump administration is planning to deport thousands of Vietnamese immigrants, a move that would roll back a 2008 bilateral agreement between the U.S. and Vietnam, former Ambassador to Hanoi Ted Osius told Reuters. The deportations would mostly target Vietnamese nationals who supported the now-defunct South Vietnam, and the action would rescind a 2008 agreement that Vietnamese people who arrived in the U.S. before July 12, 1995, can remain in the U.S. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman said that as of Dec., 8,600 Vietnamese nationals are subject to deportation, 7,821 of which have criminal records. Many Vietnamese immigrants in the U.S. are legal residents, but not citizens, who arrived as refugees after the Vietnam War. Last year, 71 Vietnamese immigrants were deported, up from 25 in 2016. A White House spokesman declined to comment to Reuters. “These people don’t really have a country to come back to,” said Osius, who left his post last year amid pressure from Trump officials to ask Vietnam to take back refugees subject to deportation.