3 days ago
Who is Melissa Tran? Hagerstown rallies behind mother and business owner held by ICE
Hagerstown resident and business owner Mong "Melissa" Tuyen Thi Tran of Hagerstown, MD, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on May 12, sparking a community response that has included a 200-hundred-strong rally and a social media effort to tell her story.
Tran and her husband, Dung "Danny" Hoang have operated Nail Palace and Spa in the Long Meadow Shopping Center for almost 22 years.
According to information given out during a rally outside the plaza June 4, Tran was detained by ICE on May 12 after she went to her check-in with immigration in Baltimore.
Since then she has been held in Louisiana, Arizona and now, in the Tacoma, Washington, area, according to Tran's Rockville, Maryland-based immigration attorney, Laura Kelsey Rhodes.
Tran, her parents and three brothers became Vietnamese refugees in 1993, according to local attorney Bernie Semler. They legally came to the United States and were issued green cards, according to Semler and his wife, Tina Nash.
Shortly after meeting Hoang in 2003, Tran was taken into custody by ICE due to an aggravated theft case when she was 19 and held for six months, according to Rhodes and information from Tran's supporters.
ICE received a deportation order due to the criminal conviction, but Vietnam was not accepting people back who had left the country before 1995. Tran was released and agreed to check in annually with immigration.
Tran and Hoang have four children and own a home in Hagerstown, according to Semler and Nash.
ICE media relations has not responded to a request for comment or more information on Tran's case.
Rhodes said Tran received a largely suspended sentence except for work release after pleading guilty to a felony theft charge. Tran also paid restitution.
According to Tran's supporters and Rhodes, Tran stole money from an employer. Rhodes said her understanding is Tran's boyfriend at the time was the "idea man" behind the crime and was pressuring Tran.
"We're not making excuses," Semler said. "She did her time."
Tran's case is likely to take months, Rhodes said. One possible result could be going back to the status quo, where Tran checks in regularly with ICE.
The "aggravated" status of Tran's conviction from around 23 years ago has prevented her from becoming a naturalized citizen, Rhodes said. It also has kept her on ICE's radar, though ICE has detained people without such convictions.
Rhodes said she's pursuing several avenues in the case, including arguing that the country she fled no longer exists and she did not have her own Vietnam passport at the time because she was a child.
Rhodes said Vietnam also might not grant her travel papers for her return, and Hoang also has started the process to petition for a new green card for Tran since they are married and he is a U.S. citizen, Rhodes said. That process might not block Tran from becoming a citizen given her conviction is more than 15 years old.
According to a story in the Herald-Mail in 2012, Tran said she and Hoang met while working in a metro-area salon and married in October 2003. They opened the Hagerstown business in February 2004.
Tran talked about how she valued education and how the "privilege" of free education provided in the United States did not exist in Vietnam. In 2010, she was commuting to Ashburn, VA, to study at George Washington's Virginia Science and Technology Campus. At the time she was interviewed for that story, Tran was planning a speech she was asked to provide at graduation.
Nash helped organize #BringMelissaHome, which hosted the June 4 meeting and has a presence on Facebook.
The #BringMelissaHome effort includes a letter-writing campaign to urge federal officials to review Tran's case and allow her to return home to Hagerstown. There's also a GoFundMe to help with legal costs and financial shortfalls Tran's family may face. Items like T-shirts and bracelets also are being sold to support legal costs and the family.
Four months into his second term, President Donald Trump has stepped up efforts to deport millions of immigrants, including Vietnamese.
According to a report in USA TODAY, the Trump administration had tried to remove at least one Vietnamese man to South Sudan, along with other migrants. On May 27, observers noted that at least one deportation flight appeared to have landed in Hanoi.
Vietnam historically has not accepted deportations from the United States, except for a period during Trump's first administration. President Joe Biden largely halted such deportations when he came into office.
USA TODAY reporter Eduardo Cuevas contributed to this story.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Vietnamese immigrant held by ICE: Why was Melissa Tran detained?
