A Transformed Life on Hold
Voice of America
In September, Lam Hong Le faces what may be the last step in his deportation process. He was told to obtain a Vietnamese passport and bring it with him to his next hearing on September 8 in Yuba, California.
“I left Vietnam 42 years ago,” said Le, 53, who fears a difficult life ahead. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam, with its capital in the northern city of Hanoi, considers Vietnamese from the south who fled the communist regime to be traitors. Le is one of many Southeast Asian refugees who faced a rough landing upon arrival in the United States in the years after the fall of Saigon in 1975. His trajectory ended with a 1990 shooting at a California birthday party. Le was convicted of murder when he was 24. Sentenced to 34 years to life, prison authorities paroled Le and on December 23, 2019, released him from San Quentin State Prison into the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). After his release, Le began working at a San Francisco homeless shelter, which deemed the Oakland resident an essential worker during the pandemic. He’s up for a promotion.A TV screen shows a file image of North Korea's rocket launch during a news program at a bus terminal in Seoul, South Korea, May 27, 2024. FILE - Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi speaks to reporters in Colombo, July 29, 2023. FILE - A TV screen shows a report of North Korea's spy satellite into orbit with its third launch attempt this year with an image of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Nov. 22, 2023.
Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. Fire rages following an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced Palestinians, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, in this still picture taken from a video, May 26, 2024. Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. A member of the bomb squad of the Israeli police collects debris after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants struck in the Israeli city of Herzliya on May 26, 2024.