Father may be sent back to 'living hell'.

It seems that if you are of mixed-race with an American and Vietnamese background you are the lowest of the low in Vietnam and there's no guarentee you'll be treated much better in America.

When U.S. forces withdrew from Vietnam in 1975, an estimated 50,000 Amerasian children were left behind. To be the child of an American is bad enough however to be My lai den bui doi – half-black Amerasian – is the lowest of the low in Vietnamese society.

For many unable to find equality in the land of their birth, the chance to get to America and have a new life is the ultimate dream. But the dream doesn't always have a happy ending and one man has found that the hand of the America can easily be withdrawn in favour of good relations with Vietnam.

The plight of Tuan Phuoc Le a mixed-race father is of grave concern. Tuan Phuoc Le's mother is a Vietnamese woman, his father was an African-American serviceman. He was born in the port city of Rach Gia, Kien Giang province in November 1971, less than four years before America’s abandonment of South Vietnam. Tuan Le was too young to know his father, but his uncle told him his father was a U.S. Marine and was Missing in Action (MIA). Tuan Le’s mother escaped Vietnam by boat to Thailand in search of a new life, abandoning him when he was 5 or 6 years old.

After suffering years of abuse in Vietnam for his racial background Tuan made his way to an orientation camp for Vietnamese refugees in the Philippines where he met his wife. They arrived in America in 1993, where Tuan found a job and raised a family.

On the morning of June 21st, Tuan joined more than a thousand Vietnamese Americans and a smattering of Cambodians, Laotians and Vietnam veterans gathered in Lafayette Park across from the White House to protest a meeting of Vietnam’s Prime Minister Phan Van Khai with President Bush.

Tuan was taunted by some of the communists accompanying the delegation. About three or four confronted Tuan Le and gave him thumbs down and began calling him names and taunting him with dirty black bastard, son of a bitch, black American imperialist, and Du ma may (F….. your mother!). when some time later Tuan later spotted one of them he saw red, his thoughts flashed back to Vietnam – to the years of abuse he suffered. Tuan Le lashed out and hit the communist alongside his head and screamed – 'You dirty communist, you killed my father!'

By coincidence, the communist that Tuan Le hit turned out to be Nguyen Quoc Huy, vice chairman of the Prime Minister's Office for the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The U.S. Secret Service detail assigned to protect the communist Vietnamese delegation, grabbed Tuan Le, handcuffed him, and sat him down on the sidewalk. Several of the communist delegation, still in suits, came up to him, pointing their fingers in his face, taunting him with the same slanderous names as before. When Tuan Le tried to reply, he was told to shut up by the Secret Service, but nothing was said to the communists.

Tuan Phuoc Le was then arrested by the Secret Service and put in jail for assaulting his communist tormentor, and even though he is an Amerasian, he now faces deportation by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services section of Homeland Security.

The morbid irony of this is Tuan Lee’s father, a black American, died fighting for the freedom of the Vietnamese, and his death deprived Tuan Le of a father. Now, America’s misguided judicial system is trying to deprive Tuan Le’s children of their father, and Tuan Le of his freedom. If Tuan Le is sent back, it is inevitable that he will end up in one of communist Vietnam’s brutal prisons for many years – once again back to 'a living hell.'

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