Sincere Thanks For Justice To Senator Leahy

Fittingly at Christmastime a McClatchy wirereport reminds us why personal vitriol should not be the mode of partisan disagreement. Democrat Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont raises many a hackle for his strong opposition to many national security policies, but has also performed a major blessing in sticking up for literally saving the lives of our former allies – the Hmong of Laos.

McClatchy reports a “Bill would ease Hmong entry.”

Hmong and Vietnamese refugees who fought for the United States a generation ago will get another chance to join their countrymen in the San Joaquin Valley under a big spending bill now heading to the White House.

The bill relaxes an anti-terrorist rule that has kept Southeast Asian refugees stuck in overseas camps or unable to obtain a green card.

An unknown number have been denied entry for actions that U.S. officials once encouraged but which became defined as terrorism following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"Many of these people were our allies," Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont said in a statement. "They were there for us when we needed them, and we should not turn our backs when they need the safety of our shores."

Leahy's provision declares the Hmong, Vietnamese Montagnards and several other groups "shall not be considered to be a terrorist organization" on the basis of past actions. This will allow them to enter the United States or obtain a green card, even if they once took up arms.

Leahy chairs the Senate panel that funds the State Department, enabling him to insert the Hmong refugee provision into the nearly 3,500-page spending package. Approved by Congress, the $554.7 billion bill now awaits President Bush's signature….

Congress imposed stricter asylum and refugee rules in the Patriot Act and follow-up legislation. Rules already in place blocked prostitutes, drug abusers, felons and terrorists, among others, from entering the United States. The new laws expanded the definitions covering terrorists.

Notably, the new laws covered those who provide "material support" including money, transportation or help with communicating.

The law further specified that an action "unlawful under the laws of the place where it is committed" could be enough to keep a potential refugee out of the United States.

Without apparently meaning to, lawmakers now say, the revisions swept in populations otherwise friendly to the United States. The Bush administration in October waived the rules covering "material support," but not the rules covering armed fighters….

In May 2006, Leahy unsuccessfully tried to revise the anti-terrorism provisions as part of a larger immigration bill. The new language specifies more narrowly which refugee groups are protected.
In addition to the Hmong from Laos and the Montagnards from Vietnam, the new provision identifies groups including the Karen National Union and Arakan Liberation Party from Burma and anti-Castro groups from Cuba.

The New York Times on December 17 front-paged the plight of our Hmong allies, along with many photos. A few:

A recent visit to Yang's jungle hideout was the first to any camp of Secret War veterans by an American newspaper reporter. Family members broke down in tears and begged for help from the visitors. Photo: Tomas Van Houtryve for the International Herald Tribune

In September 2007, soldiers killed Mee Xiong, a 5-year-old boy. The boy's family wept over his grave.
Photo: Tomas Van Houtryve for the International Herald Tribune

Regardless of paronoia that the NYT’s may have been acting to further the omnibus monstrosity the Dem Congress has delivered, our thanks also goes out to the NYT’s. The lead and excerpts:

They call themselves America’s forgotten soldiers.

Four decades after the Central Intelligence Agency hired thousands of jungle warriors to fight Communists on the western fringes of the Vietnam War, men who say they are veterans of that covert operation are isolated, hungry and periodically hunted by a Laotian Communist government still mistrustful of the men who sided with America….

Their plight, though little known, has received more attention in recent years, as human rights groups have issued reports condemning the Laotian government for attacking Hmong who worked with the Americans….

Each of the five veterans in the camp has relatives in the United States; they say their fading dream is to be reunited with them. Mr. Yang’s hope is that Washington will “come back to help old soldiers like me to leave Laos and make it to America.”…

The State Department’s annual human rights report, released in March, cited increased efforts by security forces to eliminate scattered pockets of Hmong fighters. Pressure by the Laotian Army, the report said, “was intended to starve the remnants of insurgent families from their jungle dwellings.”

The Laotian government, perhaps wary of the effect the conflict might have on the country’s thriving tourism industry, denies that any clashes have occurred or that any C.I.A. veterans are still in hiding….

The group is indigent even by the standards of rural Indochina. Its members’ diet consists mainly of wild yams collected from the jungle, bamboo shoots and small animals hunted with bows and arrows. Occasionally they obtain rice from villagers willing to risk secretive association with them.

Surrounded by their worn-looking children and grandchildren, the five men appear older than their years and today bear little resemblance to the young Hmong tribesmen who collectively earned a reputation as capable fighters.

Colin Thompson, a C.I.A. officer in Laos from 1963 to 1966, remembers the Hmong recruits as rugged and loyal.

“There were some extraordinarily brave Hmong,” he said in a telephone interview from his home in Maryland. “They were a little tougher to beat back than were the other tribal groups. They stood their ground.”

If the fate of the omnibus bill to which this relief provision is attached results in non-enactment, this relief for our allies must be taken up by the administration and Congress as a priority.

I’ve repeatedly previously written about the sad fate of the Hmong here. I've repeatedly previously written about the sad fate of our Montagnard allies here.

Film maker Rebecca Sommer has had several columns at Huffington on their plight.

This is not a partisan issue, by any means. So, sincere thanks to Senator Leahy.

Now, let’s get it done, finally, after all these years and suffering.