Walters, Calif. colleagues demand Vietnam’s release of detained American citizen

U.S. Rep. Mimi Walters (R-CA) and a contingent of California lawmakers on Aug. 9 insisted the United States press Vietnam to immediately release an unfairly jailed Orange County, Calif., resident.

The members formally requested that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demand that the Vietnamese government release Michael Phuong Minh Nguyen, who was arrested on July 7 while on a family trip and tour in Vietnam.

“Currently, an American citizen, and resident of California’s 45th District, is unjustly being held in a Vietnamese prison,” Rep. Walters said on Aug. 10. “My colleagues and I have joined together to voice our deep concern to Secretary Pompeo and strongly urge him to take immediate action to demand the safe release of Michael Nguyen from Vietnam.”

Rep. Walters said that she — along with U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, and U.S. Reps. Lou Correa (D-CA) and Alan Lowenthal (D-CA) — “stand ready in Congress to act as needed, and will not stop our efforts until Michael is back home in Orange County with his family.”

Currently, Nguyen is detained at a Ho Chi Minh City detention center, according to an Aug. 9 letter the lawmakers sent to Secretary Pompeo, where he’s reportedly being investigated for “engaging in activity against the People’s Government.”

Calling it “a spurious charge that is frequently used by the Vietnamese government in arbitrary detentions,” the members said they think Nguyen instead is being held as part of the country’s suppression of domestic dissidents.

“Alarmingly, it is possible that Michael could be detained for multiple months with no formal charge made against him,” they wrote. “This situation is unacceptable.”

The California lawmakers acknowledged improvements in recent U.S.-Vietnam relations, but said “Vietnam’s human rights record remains deeply troubling.”

For example, they cited a 2017 human rights report from the U.S. State Department that said the Vietnamese government took part in numerous illegal activities, including deprivation of life, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, and government interference with privacy, among other wrongdoings.

“Michael’s case is an egregious example of Vietnam’s troubling history of arbitrary arrest,” the members wrote, “and many fear for his safety.”

The lawmakers requested Pompeo’s immediate action to ensure Nguyen’s timely release.