Vietnamese in the US accuse Trump administration of betraying wartime immigrants with deportation policy

Advocates say a 2008 agreement between the US and Vietnam protects them from being removed, but the government disagrees

Demonstrations were held in Southern California and New Orleans with another planned in Houston on Thursday evening

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Bill Nguyen, 12, and Jade Nguyen, 9, hold signs at a rally protesting President Donald Trump's deportation policy to deport Vietnamese refugees, at the Mary Queen of Vietnam Church in New Orleans. Photo: AP

Published: 10:15am, 21 Dec 2018Updated: 9:29pm, 21 Dec 2018

Vietnamese people across the US are protesting against what they say are efforts by the Trump administration to deport members of their community and betraying a deal allowing refugees who fled the once war-torn Southeast Asian nation.

Advocates said the government has been trying to deport Vietnamese immigrants who came to the US before 1995, with an immigration judge handing them a final order of removal – generally because they committed a crime.

While protesters and advocates argued that a 2008 agreement between the US and Vietnam protects them from deportation, the Trump administration said the agreement does in fact allow them to be removed and that Vietnam has an obligation to take back the affected immigrants.

In many ways, the Vietnamese situation is a special case. The reality for most immigrants who commit a crime is that they get deported. But the Vietnamese issue has touched a nerve in part because of the long-standing ties with a community that often fought side by side with Americans and paid a high price for that commitment.

Mary Nguyen, a Vietnamese community activist, holds a sign at a rally protesting President Trump's deportation policy to deport Vietnamese refugees, at the Mary Queen of Vietnam Church in New Orleans on Thursday. Photo: AP

The ongoing debate has concerned many in the Vietnamese community who came to the US after the 1975 fall of Saigon and worry they could face persecution in Vietnam – a country where they have few if any relatives or connections.