Congressional Testimomy Puts Vietnamese Family in Stateless Limbo

In May, Tam Tran, a 24-year-old UCLA graduate spoke before Congress to advocate for the DREAM Act, which would allow undocumented college students who have lived in the U.S. for five years to get legal status. She herself was undocumented.

Days after USA Today quoted her, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested her parents and brother in their Garden Grove home. After immigration lawyers and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose), chairwoman of the House immigration subcommittee, intervened, ICE then released them with electronic ankle bracelets a 7 p.m. curfew. ICE is now seeking ways to deport them.

The family had received final deportation orders in 2001 after losing an appeal to win political asylum. A German ship had picked up Tam Tran's parents in a boat when they left Vietnam in 1980. The family stayed for six years in Germany, where Tran and a son, Thien, were born. In 1989, they came to the United States and applied for political asylum.

While their case worked its way through the system, the Tran family obtained work permits. Tran's mother, Loc Pham, held two jobs as a day care and garment worker. Her father, Tuan Tran, worked as a security guard.

Tran graduated in American literature from UCLA and is working at a Los Angeles nonprofit organization. Thien works as an auto mechanic.

Lofgren, who had called Tran as a Congressional witness, has protested that the arrest would intimidate other activists into silence, while Asian American advocacy organizations have also criticized ICE around the incident.

In 2001 when the Board of Immigration Appeals rejected their asylum claim. The board ruled that the family should be deported to Germany. However, no country is willing to take in the Tran family back. Germany has refused to accept the family since the family left Germany without permission and their residency permit has expired. While ICE considers Vietnam another possibility, no repatriation agreement exists between Vietnam and the U.S.

Tam Tran summarized her stateless status, "At the end of the process, we have nowhere to go," she said. "We're in a black hole.