50th Anniversary of the end of the America War in Southeast Asia. Our member organizations are actively organizing communities, pivoting to meet the political moment while reclaiming public narratives about refugees, immigrants, and incarcerated people through storytelling, arts and media.
SEAFN establishes an advocacy organization, Southeast Asian-Action, to strategically focus on policies and introduce The Southeast Asian Deportation Relief Act (SEADRA) Bill. SEAFN partners with Vietlead on a national tour of the documentary Taking Root to tell our story of collective healing and resistance.
SEAFN launches a national anti-deportation campaign – The Southeast Asian Relief and Responsibility (SEARR) campaign – to demand U.S. accountability and immediate relief for our community members facing deportation.
SEAFN establishes 501c3 status and enters a new phase of national organizing – to continue challenging deportation while building social, political and economic power.
U.S. entered into a new MOU with Vietnam, expanding the categories of immigrants it could deport to include pre-1995 Vietnamese refugees who were previously protected from removal by the 2008 MOU.
SEAFN’s work expanded from local and national to transnational as SEAFN sent a delegation to Cambodia for the renegotiation of the MOU with Cambodia.
In August 2016, eight Cambodian Americans from Minnesota-later known as the MN8-were detained by ICE, sparking community mobilization that led to the release of three men. Out of this resistance, the organization MN8 was formed and the SEAFN network grew bigger. It also launched the Right to Return Campaign which created a pathway and strategy for those who were deported to return to the U.S.
The national movement against deportation gained momentum as new organizations emerged, including the 1Love Movement in Philadelphia, a then member of the SEAFN family
The QSEA Network established and published the groundbreaking report on Queer SEA experience called A Census of Our Own: The State of QSEA America. This period is known as SEAFN 2.0, where member orgs like Freedom Inc, VAYLA, PrSYM and Shades of Yellow (SOY), drive the network’s evolution by bringing the experiences of queer, trans, and gender non-conforming Southeast Asians to the forefront and paving the way for SEAFN to prioritize and amplify Queer Southeast Asian voices.
US and Vietnam signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and greatly expanded the deportation of Vietnamese.