How can you help #BringTinHome?

1. Sign this petition
2. Email David Marin directly at david.a.marin@ice.dhs.gov or call 213-830-5931 and tell him to #BringTinHome using our template below (cc general@vietrise.org when you do)
3. Share the petition graphic below to amplify Tin's story and this petition!

Background

Tin came to the U.S. as a 6 year old in 1979 following the war in Viet Nam. As a youth, he became involved with gangs and was sentenced to life in prison for murder. During his 20 years of incarceration, Tin has spoken publicly about the racism, experiences, and conditions that led Vietnamese immigrant youth like himself to become involved with gangs.

While in prison, Tin enrolled at CSU LA BA's Prison Initiative and volunteered with Paws For Life to train service dogs for veterans diagnosed with PTSD. In 2018, Governor Brown granted him a commutation for his transformation and rehabilitation while incarcerated, and Tin was granted parole in 2019. However, as soon as Tin was released, ICE detained him. ICE has now been detaining Tin at the Adelanto Detention Center, one of the worst detention centers in the country, for over 9 months.

We are calling on support from community members, elected officials, and all, to help Bring Tin home to his family so he can be reunited with his nephews and nieces, his siblings, and his 84-year old mother. Tin is missed dearly by his family. His aging mother, also a Vietnamese refugee, wants nothing more than to be reunited with him.

Tin’s Story

Tin Nguyen is a Vietnamese refugee who immigrated to the United States in 1979 as a child with his family, shortly after the Viet Nam War. Like many youth in the Vietnamese diaspora, Tin struggled with involuntarily migrating to the United States, and faced constant racism and abuse for being the only Vietnamese and non-English speaking student in his elementary school. As a result of the trauma he faced as a child, Tin ultimately chose the wrong path. In 1996 he was involved in an armed robbery, and during the struggle, shot a man. Shortly after, he was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Faced with a sentence that gave no hope of parole, Tin nevertheless focused on his rehabilitation and worked to transform himself. During his 20 years of incarceration, Tin participated in multiple self-help programs, and enrolled at the highly selective Cal State University, Los Angeles BA Prison Initiative. He also volunteered with Paws For Life to train service dogs for military veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. While imprisoned, Tin continued to be there for his family emotionally, supporting his siblings while raising their children and providing constant emotional support.

Recognizing his remarkable transformation and community work while in prison, Governor Brown granted him a commutation in 2018. In 2019, Tin was granted parole. However, as soon as he was released from prison, Tin was picked up and detained by ICE. Since December 2019, Tin has now been detained in an ICE facility in Adelanto for over nine months. He may be deported at any time by ICE to Vietnam -- a country he has not seen or known since he was a child. Additionally, because Tin came to the United States before 1995, ICE would be violating the repatriation agreement between Viet Nam and the United States, which bars any Vietnamese refugee who came to the U.S. before 1995 from being deported. However, ICE has continued to violate this agreement including when ICE deported 12 Vietnamese refugees who came to the U.S. before 1995 in early August 2020. With Tin’s medical conditions, he is also at high risk for contracting COVID-19. Tin is being detained in Adelanto, where ICE and GEO Group (the private prison company that runs Adelanto), have failed to ensure that the facility is compliant with CDC and DHS health standards.

Not only has ICE forced Tin to be detained in unsafe health conditions, ICE is unconstitutionally holding Tin in detention far past the legal timeframe for them to be allowed to hold any person in detention, which is 180 days, violating his human and civil rights. He is now in a dangerous and unconstitutional limbo, and needs our support. We believe his detention is unjust, unconstitutional, and inhumane, and as Vietnamese community members, we resonate with his story and know how dire it is for him to be released from ICE detention and for him to come home now. Tin has a job offer from Paws For Life to work as a Service Dog Trainer as well as an offer to work at CSU Los Angeles should he be released from ICE custody.

Tin's mom and sister speaking at the Sept 16 press conference to #BringTinHome

Community members, representatives from the offices of Congressmembers Lou Correa and Alan Lowenthal, Santa Ana City Council Member Vicente Sarmiento, and more came out to call ICE to release Tin and to #BringTinHome