More than 1.2 million Vietnamese immigrants live in the US, many arriving after the Vietnam War. More recently, a new wave of migration has sparked debate in the Vietnamese American community and has become one of the main talking points this election season. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee spoke with voters in Texas, the state with the second-largest Vietnamese immigrant population in the US.

For Hong Pham, life in Vietnam versus the US is like day and night.

Hong Pham
Vietnamese American
Life was very hard back then. I earned a living as pedicab driver traveling between towns in southern Vietnam.

When communists took over Saigon in 1975, Pham was sent to a re-education camp for serving in the South Vietnamese military. He eventually made his way to the US on a humanitarian program. But now a wave of undocumented Vietnamese people is aiming to enter the US through its southern border. The number caught by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) jumped from just under 300 in 2022 to more than 3,000 in 2023. CBP logged more than 3,200 so far this year. Attorney Shandon Phan is in touch with some of them.

Shandon Phan
Attorney
If people are not quite educated and they got fed all these false stories about how easy that is, they play with their own life.

Phan says many migrants pay tens of thousands of dollars to traffickers to make the dangerous trip from Vietnam to China, then Europe, South America and then to the US. Immigration has become a hotly debated issue in this year’s US presidential race.

Jeremi Suri
University of Texas at Austin
I don’t think there’s disagreement on the fact that there are problems with our immigration system. The debate is really about what to do about it. The Trump administration wants to reduce the numbers. The Democratic administration wants to reduce, but really better regulate.”

Hong Pham
Vietnamese American
Those who flee communism have a legitimate reason to be in the US. I’m not in favor of granting asylum to those who come here illegally because of economic reasons.

While Pham’s views echo those of the older Republicans in the Vietnamese community, some younger Vietnamese Americans who were born in the US don’t share them.

Jessica Huynh
Vietnamese American
My mom is more conservative. She’s one of those people that want people to come over here legally. And I get that. She is overlooking the fact that everybody just wants to come here and have a better life.

The migrants who make it here live in limbo, hoping to find work and waiting to see whether the next president will let them stay.

Elizabeth Lee, VOA News, Houston.

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