ICE punishes another legal immigrant for following the law

Hai Nguyen did all the right things to work legally in the United States. But, like a growing number of legal immigrants, Hai was arrested by ICE while complying with U.S. immigration law.

Holly Rae, his wife of 18 years, posted to social media:

“My husband arrived in the US on March 8, 1993, when he was 8 years old. We are coming up on 33 years that he has been living on US soil. His family believed that he would be able to achieve succes[s] and find safety in the United States, after growing up in post-war era Vietnam in the 1980s. Much of his family settled in Tulsa, OK. Where they become business owners and raised families themselves. I met Hai at East Central HS in Tulsa. I have known him since the 9th grade. Many of our close friends remember him from when he started 3rd grade at Columbus Elementary. After HS, we both attended and graduated from OU. I went on to graduate with a Masters in Social Work and Hai received his Bachelor’s in Sociology. Hai has an extremely high work ethic and goes above & beyond for everyone he meets.”

Holly added that Hai’s only legal trouble was twenty years ago: a marijuana arrest. However, Hai cleaned up his act and has only worked hard. For the past fifteen years, he has been legally employed by Hobby Lobby. “His co-workers have been messaging me relentlessly asking for updates about him. They love him too,” wrote his wife.

In an earlier post, she wrote, “my husband entered this country legally. He did not over stay a visa. He and his family were sponsored.”

“For the entirety of his life in the US, Hai has been documented,” she wrote. “We pay nearly $400 for this document faithfully yearly, to allow him to legally work in the US.”

Everything suddenly upended when Hai attended his immigration check-in on March 2nd.

“Many people told him not to check in and not take the risk of getting detained now. He refused, he absolutely never missed an appointment. He was kind and cheerful to the immigration officers he met with over the years and had built a rapport with some of them.”

She wrote, “Hai is currently being held at the Cimarron Correctional Facility (an ICE for-profit detention center) in Cushing, OK. We are praying they do not move him to a Detention facility in another state. We have hired a lawyer and she has discussed our very limited options. But first, we are focused on getting him home to our beautiful kids, who just want their daddy home. My goal, is for him to be safe at home with us, where he belongs. No child should have to experience this trauma.”

“Why not get citizenship? We tried. Why are you illegal? He isn’t. Why not just leave? He loves his family, his home and his life with us. Why now? This administration is seeking to detain and remove as many humans as possible,” she wrote.