Family Looks to Congress to Fight Deportation

[Rhino]

Michigan Family Looks to Congress to Fight Deportation Order After Being in U.S. For 18 Years
Thursday, June 28, 2007

By Liza Porteus

WASHINGTON — When Guy and Genevieve Vang came to the United States 18 years ago, they thought they did everything they needed to do to raise their family and work legally in the United States.

They and their two children came to the United States from France, the country they fled to after they escaped war in Laos and Vietnam. They got working papers, filed for political asylum and waited.

They eventually opened up a restaurant, Bangkok 96, in Dearborn, Mich., and had two more children. But they continued to wait on word from the government about their asylum application.

The wait lasted more than 10 years.

And now, in fewer than 60 days unless Congress intervenes, they likely will be deported.

"I pray every day," Genevieve Vang told FOXNews.com in a telephone interview, with the din of her busy restaurant in the background. "It’s difficult … working every day but to have this issue on your shoulder is very stressful. You don’t know what you face, you don’t know what will come tomorrow, it’s just a big black mirror."

It’s her children and their future she worries about the most.

"All of our fight to stay here is about our kids ... that’s what they know, from here," she said. "We’ve been through a lot for the past four years and everybody knows what’s going on. It’s been very terrible. The kids deserve their parents."

The Vangs' lawyer, Jason Peltz, said all of the family’s legal recourses have been exhausted and that their hope now lies with Congress.

"Legally they’re not in a great situation … the government messed up in taking years and years to file their asylum claim," Peltz said. "There’s no remedy in the law for that. They don’t have a great pure legal case — it’s a moral case. We’re asking the government not to see this case in black and white."

Lawyer: 'They Can't Get Legal'

Guy Vang’s father and grandfather worked for the CIA in Laos during the 1960s and 1970s. In 1975, after the United States withdrew from Southeast Asia and the communist Pathet Lao government took over, those loyal to the deposed leader were hunted down. Guy Vang’s family — his parents and their 11 children — fled when he was 14. Guy was the only one who jumped aboard a plane taking military and government officials and their families to Thailand, where he spent the next three years in a refugee camp.

Guy and Genevieve met in France, where both were sponsored by relief groups. They married in 1983, had two daughters — Christine, now 23, and Melanie, now 18, both of whom live and attend college in the United States — and became French citizens. Guy Vang, who thought his entire family was dead, then received a letter with news that his entire family made it out of Laos alive and were in the United States. He went to the U.S. embassy and applied for a visa so he could go see them.

At that time, the new Visa Waiver Pilot Program [now the Visa Waiver Program] had been in effect for about 45 days. Guy Vang told officials he wanted a visitor visa, and they told him to sign a form to participate in the waiver program. What Guy Vang did not understand at the time, Peltz explained, was that with that stroke of the pen, he had signed away any ability to ever protest his deportation....http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,287043,00.html

[Wolfcounsel]

Yes, they can rely on the monkeys in Congress to fix their problem.

[uncommon1]

Dearborn. I wonder if they're muzzies. That alone would be enough for me to want them deported. Semd them back to the country where they established citizenship.

[pinqy]

Dearborn. I wonder if they're muzzies.
Why? Why you wonder if someone from Laos was Muslim?

[Wolfcounsel]

All Muslims must GO! They can go stink up North Korea with their Koran.

[pinqy]

All Muslims must GO! They can go stink up North Korea with their Koran.
Again, what on Earth does that have to do with a family from Laos.

[Maggie_T]

Pingy, don't you know that you don't have to be an Arab to be a Muslim?

Islam is a religion, not a nationality. Anyone can be a Muslim, just like anyone can be a Buddhist, a Catholic, etc.

Jesus. Don't they teach you anything in school these days? :flame:

[Rhino]

Pinqy is correct.

Buddhism was the state religion of the Kingdom of Laos, and the organization of the Buddhist community of monks and novices, the clergy (sangha), paralleled the political hierarchy. The faith was introduced beginning in the eighth century by Mon Buddhist monks and was widespread by the fourteenth century. A number of Laotian kings were important patrons of Buddhism. Virtually all lowland Lao were Buddhists in the early 1990s, as well as some Lao Theung who have assimilated to lowland culture. Since 1975 the communist government has not opposed Buddhism but rather has attempted to manipulate it to support political goals, and with some success. Increased prosperity and a relaxation of political control stimulated a revival of popular Buddhist practices in the early 1990s.http://countrystudies.us/laos/58.htm

Muslims are only about 1% of the population in Laos, and many of those that are there came after the war, and after the time that the Vangs left. You may also notice that the Vangs have adopted western first names, something Muslims would probably never do. It is extremely unlikely that they're Muslims. Maybe about the same chance as John Kerry getting the Republican nomination in the next election.

[pinqy]

Pingy, don't you know that you don't have to be an Arab to be a Muslim?Where on Earth did you get the idea I didn't know that? I never mentioned Arabs or implied that one had to be a certain ethnicity to be Muslim. Arabs are actually a minority of Muslims in the world, and in the US, the majority of Arabs are Christian.

Islam is a religion, not a nationality. Anyone can be a Muslim, just like anyone can be a Buddhist, a Catholic, etc.Of course. But religions tend to be predominant in certain countries. So I can only asssume you were just ignorant of Laos. I mean, come on...Norway has over twice as many Muslims as Laos.

I find it interesting that you read "Why you wonder if someone from Laos was Muslim?" as meaning "why would you wonder if someone who isn't Arab is Muslm" when it meant, well, just what it said.

Jesus. Don't they teach you anything in school these days? :flame:I've been out of school for many years, but I did learn the demographics of Laos.
Muslims are only about 1% of the population in LaosLess. According to the Laotian 1995 census (as reported by the CIA) the breakdown is: Buddhist 65%, animist 32.9%, Christian 1.3%, other and unspecified 0.8% Among those 0.8% are Baha'i, Mahayana Buddhists, and Confucianists as well as Muslims.

[Rhino]

Hey! I said about 1%! :evilgrin:

[d'urville]

Dearborn. I wonder if they're muzzies. That alone would be enough for me to want them deported. Semd them back to the country where they established citizenship.

They're actually French citizens. When he was 14, he hopped on a plane to Thailand, but his parents and siblings stayed and received political asylum here later. He spent three years in a refugee camp, then went to France.

They're, in effect, trying to receive political asylum from - against -France. Things aren't that bad there yet.