40 Years Too Long

For the past three years, I have had the honor of representing Mr. Ai Bac Nguyen. Ai has tried to unite his family for more than four decades. I have tried every legal route to try and reunite the family-- humanitarian reinstatement requests, motions to reopen, etc. I have enlisted the help of Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, the USCIS Ombudsman’s office, and now even the media. Though I work with clients everyday with difficult stories, I find the story of the Nguyen especially heartbreaking and unjust.

Ai worked alongside U.S. Army Special Forces during the Vietnam War, and his father, Nhon Duc Nguyen, was an OPLAN34 CIA Operative. As a result of his work for the U.S. government, Nhon was imprisoned for 18 years as a prisoner of war. After the fall of Vietnam, Ai came to the United States as a refugee and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corp. Ai filed petitions to reunite with his family in the 1990s, but his sisters, An & Ngoc, were ineligible to come with his parents to the United States because they were already married by the time his parents were allowed to immigrate. An & Ngoc patiently waited in line as their mother, Loan, filed a petition for them. Unfortunately, when their mother died of cancer three years later, immigration agency terminated her petition. Their father, Nhon, refiled the petition for An & Ngoc. After 11 years of waiting, he too died from cancer, and the petition was again terminated. Ai has filed a new petition for his sisters, but it will be approximately 15 years before An & Ngoc can expect to be at the front of the line again.

I am working hard to reunite Mr. Ai Bac Nguyen’s family. But I can’t do it alone. Please watch the special report from KATU using the link below and let your representatives know that we need permanent priority dates so that people are not forced to go to the back of the line when a family member dies in the middle of an immigration case. It is unfair to make someone go to the “end of the line” when they are already dealing with the death of a close relative and have already waited so long. It is unfair to tell people to pay thousands of dollars to wait at the end of the line, when there is a very good chance they won’t live long enough to see the front of the line. This is not how we should treat our veterans. This is not how we should treat any human being.

We can't fix everything about immigration, but we can fight for permanent priority dates so that those waiting in line to immigrate legally aren't pushed to the end of the line through no fault of their own.

Click Here for the Full Story from KATU NEWS