[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 8922 Introduced in House (IH)]
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117th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 8922
To halt removal of certain nationals of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos,
and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 20, 2022
Mr. Lowenthal (for himself, Ms. Lofgren, Ms. Jayapal, Ms. Chu, Ms.
Pressley, Mr. Evans, Ms. McCollum, Ms. Norton, Mr. McGovern, Ms. Tlaib,
Ms. Meng, Mr. Torres of New York, Ms. Schakowsky, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez,
Mr. Smith of Washington, Mrs. Napolitano, Ms. Omar, Mr. Vargas, and Ms.
Lee of California) introduced the following bill; which was referred to
the Committee on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To halt removal of certain nationals of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Southeast Asian Deportation Relief
Act of 2022''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds as follows:
(1) Millions of Southeast Asian Americans live in the
United States, including 2,182,735 Vietnamese Americans,
338,637 Cambodian Americans, 254,304 Laotian Americans, and
326,843 Hmong Americans, according to the 2019 American
Community Survey. Many of these communities arrived as refugees
beginning over 40 years ago from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos,
in the aftermath of the wars in Southeast Asia (more commonly
known as the ``Vietnam War'').
(2) The United States intervened in Cambodia, Laos, and
Vietnam between 1954 and 1975, to prevent the spread of
communism in Southeast Asia through direct military
interventions and covert and clandestine operations.
(3) South Vietnam allied with the United States in
opposition to the expansion of North Vietnam until the Fall of
Saigon on April 30, 1975. As a result of this service, many
Vietnamese Americans to this day still suffer lasting trauma
from the war, including post-traumatic stress disorder and
exposure to Agent Orange. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
and various agencies enlisted over 30,000 soldiers from Hmong,
Lao, and Laotian ethnic groups in Laos as allies to aid United
States forces in Southeast Asia, waging a 13-year covert
operation called the ``Secret War'' against the Pathet Lao,
Viet Cong, and Northern Vietnamese Army.
(4) The United States heavily bombed Laos, making it the
most heavily bombed country in the world, with over 580,000
bombing missions between 1964 and 1973. Today, an estimated
80,000,000 bombs remain unexploded, with 20,000 people who have
been injured or killed since the bombings stopped.
(5) Between 1969 to 1973, the United States dropped 540,000
tons of bombs into Cambodia against Viet Cong forces,
destabilizing the country's already fragile government. This
mass bombing of Cambodia's countryside helping to fuel the rise
of the Khmer Rouge, which subsequently carried out the
destruction of Cambodian society and the genocide of an
estimated 2,000,000 Cambodians.
(6) Over 3,000,000 individuals were displaced by war,
conflict, and genocide from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.
Between 1975 to 2008, the United States Government resettled
over 1,200,000 Southeast Asian refugees in this country, as
part of the largest refugee resettlement effort in the history
of the United States. Southeast Asian refugees included
survivors of the war in Vietnam and Laos, the genocide in
Cambodia, Hmong soldiers and their families who received
refugee status in exchange for their service in the Secret War,
and other ethnic minority groups persecuted in the aftermath of
the war.
(7) Many Southeast Asian refugees face significant physical
and mental health issues, such as post-traumatic stress
disorder and depression, stemming from their experiences
escaping war, genocide, torture, and mass starvation.
Additionally, many Southeast Asian refugees were resettled in
communities that were heavily disinvested and lacked long-term
resettlement support, causing many Southeast Asians also suffer
from systemic poverty, discrimination, and linguistic barriers.
(8) Immigrant communities face significant challenges
assimilating as a result of the trauma of war. A 2018 study
published by Rashmi Gangamma and Daran Shipman in the Journal
of Marital and Family Therapy noted that ``the traumatic nature
of (immigrant's) forced displacement flight, and resettlement
can increase vulnerability to mental distress''. First
generation immigrants are especially vulnerable to gang
violence within communities in which their parents cannot guide
them with cultural or political familiarity.
(9) Key policies during the 1990s including the period's
``War on Drugs'', passage of the Violent Crime Control and Law
Enforcement Act, expansion of the carceral system, and over-
policing of low-income communities of color entangled a
significant number of Southeast Asian Americans, especially
Southeast Asian youth, within the criminal justice system.
During this period, Southeast Asian youth were incarcerated at
twice the rate of White youth for similar offenses.
(10) Additional immigration policies during the 1990s
reinforced this emerging prison to deportation pipeline. The
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of
1996 (IIRIRA) and the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty
Act (AEDPA) expanded the category of crimes that could lead to
deportation and limited due process protections for
noncitizens. IIRIRA also applied these changes retroactively
without proper consideration of an individual's lived
circumstances.
(11) Approximately 15,000 long-term residents of Southeast
Asian descent, many of whom initially arrived as child
refugees, live in the United States with a final order of
removal. These individuals often do not speak the native
language of that country, lack familial connections there, and
are at risk of being targeted for human rights abuses as a
result of historic support for United States anti-communist
policies.
(12) The United States accepted thousands of Vietnamese
refugees through the Orderly Departure Program, Humanitarian
Resettlement program, and McCain Amendment through 2009,
including survivors of re-education centers, former employees
of the United States Government and United States companies or
organizations, and immediate family members.
(13) In 2002, the United States and Cambodia signed a
bilateral repatriation agreement, hereafter known as the 2002
U.S.-Cambodia Repatriation Agreement. Deportations of Cambodian
Americans to Cambodia increased by 366 percent the following
year. Over 1,000 Cambodian Americans have been deported to
Cambodia since then.
(14) In 2008, the United States and Vietnam signed a
bilateral repatriation agreement, hereafter known as the 2008
U.S.-Vietnam Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). According to
section 2, article 2 of the 2008 Vietnam-U.S. MOU, ``Vietnamese
citizens are not subject to return to Vietnam under this
Agreement if they arrived in the United States before July 12,
1995, the date on which diplomatic relations were re-
established between the U.S. Government and the Vietnamese
Government''. President George W. Bush and President Barack
Obama both recognized the 2008 United States-Vietnam MOU's
removal protections for pre-1995 refugees.
(15) In 2020, President Trump's administration entered into
a new memorandum of understanding with Vietnam, expanding the
categories of immigrants it could deport to include pre-95
Vietnamese refugees who were previously protected from removal
by the 2008 MOU.
SEC. 3. LIMITATION ON THE DETENTION AND REMOVAL OF NATIONALS OF
VIETNAM, CAMBODIA, AND LAOS.
(a) Limitation on Detention and Removal.--An alien who is subject
to a final order or removal may not be detained or removed from the
United States on or after the date of enactment of this Act if the
alien--
(1) is a national of Vietnam, Cambodia, or Laos;
(2) entered the United States on or before January 1, 2008,
and has continuously resided in the United States since such
entry; and
(3) is subject to a final order of removal.
(b) Employment Authorization.--The Secretary of Homeland Security
shall authorize an alien described in subsection (a) to permanently
engage in employment in the United States and provide such alien with
an ``employment authorized'' endorsement or other appropriate work
permit, which shall be valid for a period of 5 years, and may be
renewed any number of times.
(c) Limitation on Periodic Identification.--Upon application to the
Secretary of Homeland Security, an alien described in subsection (a)
who is subject to an order of supervision under section 241(a)(3) of
the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1231(a)(3)) shall not be
required to appear in-person before an immigration officer for periodic
identification pursuant to such order of supervision. The Secretary
shall, in lieu of such periodic identification, require such an alien
to appear virtually before an immigration officer not more frequently
than once every 5 years.
SEC. 4. NOTICE FOR CERTAIN NATIONALS OF VIETNAM, CAMBODIA, AND LAOS
WITH REMOVAL ORDERS.
(a) In General.--Not later than 60 days after the date of enactment
of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall provide notice of
the provisions of this Act to each alien described in section 3(a).
(b) Contents of Notice.--The notice described in subsection (a)
shall include information explaining the requirements and instructions
for filing a motion to reopen removal proceedings under section
240(c)(7) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.
1229a(c)(7)).
SEC. 5. JUDICIAL REVIEW.
(a) Review.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, an
individual or entity who has been harmed by a violation of this Act may
file an action in an appropriate district court of the United States to
seek declaratory or injunctive relief.
(b) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this Act may be construed to
preclude an action filed pursuant to subsection (a) from proceeding as
a class action (as such term is defined in section 1711 of title 28,
United States Code).
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