“Louder for Lan” gives refugees facing deportation a voice

Lan Le has lived in Massachusetts for over 40 years after her family came here as refugees in 1981. They fled war-torn Vietnam by boat when she was just 9 years old and lived for a time in a refugee camp in Macau before settling in the United States. She has no real connection to her birthplace and has since raised her nine U.S. citizen children in the United States, where she holds a green card.

But now she, like thousands of other immigrants, faces the real danger of being separated from her American-born children and sent to a country she does not know.

It’s a complicated story, but Le faces deportation after being involved in a crime committed by a group of people a quarter century ago. She was subsequently arrested and convicted in 1997 and served time in MCI-Framingham prison until 1999. Le declined to provide details of her conviction, but community leaders say she is now being doubly punished for the same crime. Since her release, she has dedicated her life to being a loving mother and an active member of her community, they say.

Le, one of roughly 50,000 Vietnamese living in Massachusetts according to the latest census, is far from alone in her fight against the U.S. immigration system. Publicly available data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shows that over 18,000 immigrants were arrested by ICE in New England from October 2020 to December 2023. Fewer than 1,900 of those people had criminal records.

Le’s story is explored in a new two-part podcast, “Louder for Lan!” produced by the Asian American Resource Workshop, which explores Lan Le’s journey to becoming a community leader advocating for working-class families in Greater Boston. The series delves into her personal experiences – including her incarceration and efforts to become a better mother after her release, as well as her work as a community organizer – and seeks to highlight the devastating impact of imperialist wars in Asia and the cycle from prison incarceration to deportation that separates immigrants from their homes and families even after they’ve served their sentences.

At a release party for the podcast hosted by AARW on a Sunday, several dozen people gathered in the Great Hall of the Vietnamese American Community Center in Fields Corner to listen to Lan Le, show her their support, and preview the podcast. On one side of the room, the wall was covered with posters showing the timeline of the deportation crisis. The event was also an opportunity to get involved by launching a letter-writing campaign to members of Congress in support of the Southeast Asian Deportation Relief Act, or SEADRA. The bill would effectively prohibit ICE from detaining or deporting refugees from Southeast Asia who came to the United States before 2008, would give those refugees permanent work authorization, and would end ICE’s in-person inspection of refugees with a surveillance order.

Before we were played two audio clips from the series, Le took the microphone to address the audience. She introduced herself by speaking of the difficulties of adjusting to life in America as a child, the lack of resources at the time, and having to take on a caregiving role in her household as a child. She spoke of her plans to seek a pardon from the federal government, as the legislative process is slow and the SEADRA legislation is very unlikely to become law before her immigration hearing in December. The group then listened to audio messages—”love letters”—to Le from her colleagues at AARW, which only added to the understanding of the love Lan Le’s community has for her. They spoke of her tireless passion for her work as an organizer and her love for her family.

Two clips from the podcast series were played to those in attendance. In the first clip, we hear Lan Le talk about the shame she feels—and other women often feel—about making mistakes in the past that affect their immigration status and about the difficulty they find sharing their story with others.

“I know a lot of women who are affected by immigration, but not many come forward because they are afraid of their own family, of their children who know that what they have done is wrong. Or of friends, there could be many reasons why women do not come forward to us.”

She shared her hopes to create a place where women can talk freely and openly about these issues with each other. “So that’s why they keep going back to it, and one day when they can’t take it anymore, terrible things could happen, it could be suicide. It could be something we don’t know.”

She talks about creating some kind of space that she can’t quite name but suggests maybe “a rehab, whatever that is.” She envisions that space as a place where women like her can express themselves the way she does on this podcast. “So that they can go out there, you know, in front of everyone, to say what they think, like I am today. So yeah, that’s what I want in the future.”
In the second podcast clip, we can see Les’ constant concern for others, which her daughters Jen, Michelle and Angel recognize when speaking to AARW. “She’s not very selfish. I would say she’s not selfish at all,” muses Les’ daughter Jen. Her other daughter agrees with the word “selfless!” Her other daughter agrees based on her mother’s nature alone. “She’s literally a mother of nine children and a grandmother of four grandchildren. So, you just notice someone who is a part of our family.”
“It’s hard to live in this country,” Le told Sampan in an interview afterward. Le spoke about the many challenges refugees face in life in America. She reported difficulties with the language barrier and having little idea how to access the services they need.

When asked how she can hold on to hope, Le replied, “I have hopes and dreams. I hope the government and the world will know that this is happening to me. Not only me, but everyone in my community is affected by immigration. … It’s a difficult situation, but I have to keep fighting for it.”

“I’m scared that they’re going to separate me from my family, my children and my community. I’m very happy that I have a lot of support. At the same time, it makes me very sad that the government is taking a person like me back to a place I don’t know or have any connections to.”

Lan Le expressed her hope to stay and watch her family continue to grow and thrive, as her youngest child is only in 10th grade.

“She needs my support and I want to be with her too. My big problem right now is that I just hope that I can ask for a pardon, for some kind of relief that will give me the chance to stay in the United States with my family.”

“I think all deportations should end, not just for Southeast Asians, but for the whole world, so we can have another chance.”

You can listen to the Louder for Lan! podcast and support Lan’s fight by visiting aarw.org/lansfighttostay.