![\"Maya](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/OCR-L-YOUTHICE-0217-02-PB.jpg\")
<\/a>Maya Do at the VietRISE offices in Garden Grove, CA on Friday, February 13, 2026. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n\u2018It was a battle to establish the community\u2019<\/p>\n
Do, a La Quinta High School student, joined hundreds of activists, youth and community members beneath Garden Grove\u2019s clock tower on Jan. 31, part of nationwide <\/a>protests in solidarity with immigration protests in Minneapolis following the fatal shootings of two civilians by immigration officers.<\/p>\n \u201cIn our U.S. history class, we\u2019ve been learning about the early 1900s. And as I read my textbook, I\u2019m shocked by how much of today\u2019s issues reflect those from over a century ago \u2014 especially the same, anti-immigrant and racist attitudes and the fear spread by the government against people who dare to speak out,\u201d Do told the crowd that included her parents.<\/p>\n \u201cBut history also teaches us something powerful,\u201d Do said. \u201cChange happens when people raise their voices.\u201d<\/p>\n Vietnamese youth like Do, born out of a Little Saigon community rooted in mass immigration, are speaking up in hopes of raising awareness and pressing their elected representatives to provide resources for community members affected by the raids.<\/p>\n Some youth are speaking in place of their relatives and neighbors who, for risk of deportation, fear speaking up for themselves; and others, spurred by a desire to embrace their heritage, are now pushing back on presumptions that the community\u2019s footing in Orange County was historically invulnerable.<\/p>\n More than 622,000 immigrants across the nation were arrested for deportation last year, a Department of Homeland Security report said.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n The stepped-up immigration enforcement, promised by President Donald Trump during his campaign to return to the Oval Office, is focused on arresting and deporting dangerous felons, according to administration officials, who say the effort is achieving that goal.<\/p>\n But critics, including Do, call the program inhumane and argue the raids are taking in people without criminal records and, in some cases, have even included U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n Vietnamese residents make up about 16% of Orange County\u2019s immigrant and refugee population. And Orange County\u2019s now-famed Little Saigon was born from the flight of refugees in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n Since immigration enforcement efforts saw renewed fervor in Orange County last spring, Little Saigon has been among the targets for raids. But an agreement the United States signed with Vietnam during Trump\u2019s first term in office also makes Orange County\u2019s Vietnamese community more vulnerable to deportation.<\/p>\n It created a process for deporting immigrants\u00a0who entered the country before 1995, the period when many in Little Saigon immigrated among the large waves of refugees fleeing the 1975 fall of Saigon, not long after the United States bowed out of the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n A dozen or more of these \u201cpre-95\u201d immigrants, who\u2019ve regularly checked in with ICE while awaiting travel documents, have been detained during this otherwise routine process, according to data provided by the nonprofit Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice<\/a>.<\/p>\n And, the county also saw a slight rise last year in voluntary ICE referrals by local law enforcement, the nonprofit said data it obtained shows, of which 30%, or around 70 people, were Vietnamese.<\/p>\n Vietnamese community members were the demographic most vulnerable to requests from ICE for potential deportation, the Harbor Institute said.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there is a perception, amongst Vietnamese people themselves, that we were welcome here,\u201d said Dwight Hua, the youth coordinator for VietRISE<\/a>, a county-based nonprofit founded in 2018 to support Vietnamese and immigrant communities.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was sort of the dominant narrative, and I think some people were pushing that,\u201d Hua said. \u201cBut the reality is that was not the case.\u201d<\/p>\n Hua, 25, referenced a Pew Research study published in 2015<\/a>, which found that following the final collapse of South Vietnam in 1975, \u201cAmericans were deeply divided\u201d on whether some 130,000 Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians, evacuated by the U.S. in their flight from the new communist government, should be allowed to live in the U.S.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a May 1975 Harris poll, for example, 37% were in favor, 49% opposed, and 14% weren\u2019t sure,\u201d the study said. \u201cNonetheless, the refugees were allowed to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n And in the late 1980s, after Little Saigon found official recognition, freeway and street signs directing people to the community were frequently defaced and destroyed in disapproval, Hua said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a battle to establish the community, and I think people sometimes forget that,\u201d Hua said.<\/p>\n Do said she learned about the Vietnam War and the United States\u2019 relationship with her birth country in her history class; that knowledge sparked an abiding interest in foreign relations and history.<\/p>\n Do, whose involvement with VietRISE spans back to 2024, said the organization gave her the opportunity to explore her community further.<\/p>\n She remembers canvassing door-to-door with another VietRISE member to survey Vietnamese mobile home residents on issues they were experiencing around evictions and infractions. They saw a house, \u201cit had MAGA all over, Trump 2028,\u201d and for a moment, Do said she hesitated to knock.<\/p>\n \u201cBut we did, and this elderly Vietnamese woman came out and we spoke to her in Vietnamese,\u201d Do said. \u2029\u201dAnd out of all the residents we talked to, she was the most open to talking to us.\u201d<\/p>\n Before speaking to more Vietnamese community members face-to-face, Do said she believed the community to be irreparably polarized in its political beliefs.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it made me aware of these kinds of community issues that are going on regardless of our political stance or beliefs. And these things that are sometimes so normalized or not talked about, we need to address them,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need to be talking about what\u2019s happening right here, next door.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018T\u1ebft is supposed to be about bringing people together\u2019<\/p>\n Pacifica High School senior Seven Zenor\u2019s best Tet memories include browsing the Asian Garden Mall in Westminster with family, lighting firecrackers and playing traditional Vietnamese board games.<\/p>\n \u201cI just love the energy around it,\u201d Zenor, 18, said of the holiday. \u201cIt\u2019s really impactful for me because it just brings family together, friends together, so many people together. That\u2019s what Tet is about.\u201d<\/p>\n This year, however, his grandparents\u2019 home is uncharacteristically devoid of Tet decorations, he said of the dampened spirits this holiday and fears of becoming a target.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m so sad to see my grandparents not celebrating it,\u201d Zenor said. \u201cWhat if we go to my temple or have a firecracker celebration and ICE comes in and just starts taking people away? Tet is supposed to be about bringing people together, not a time when you\u2019re scaring people with division.\u201d<\/p>\n His grandparents are citizens, but Zenor said he fears they\u2019d be unable to defend themselves in English if approached by immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n Zenor said he supports immigration enforcement, so long as it targets criminals and \u201cnot innocents.\u201d But, he argues the Trump administration\u2019s raids are not always doing that and, instead, \u201care sometimes deporting people based on color.\u201d<\/p>\n To protest the raids, Zenor helped organize Pacifica High\u2019s Jan. 20 walkout by spreading word of the plans on social media.<\/p>\n More than 50 students left their final-period classes at 2 p.m. that day, wielding signs and demonstrating on the corner of Lampson Avenue and Knott Street, part of the nationwide \u201cFree America\u201d walkout to demand an end to the immigration enforcement campaign.<\/p>\n Sophia Tran, 16, a Bolsa Grande High School student, attended Garden Grove City Council meetings last year where she was one of dozens of speakers to press the elected leaders to at least post a know-your-rights resource page on the city\u2019s website.<\/a><\/p>\n Tran says she\u2019s speaking up in spite of her parents, who are aware of her activism but don\u2019t necessarily weigh in. It\u2019s not a conversation that\u2019s had at the dinner table, she said. Her family seldom discusses politics or anything related to their personal backstory.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just leads to arguments,\u201d Zenor said, adding he felt similarly. The majority of his family, he said, supports the current immigration campaign despite having immigrated from Vietnam themselves.<\/p>\n Tran joined VietRISE wanting to learn \u201cmore about Vietnamese history and the community itself.\u201d<\/p>\n Tran spent last summer canvassing door-to-door about the community\u2019s thoughts on everything from rent control to noncitizen voting, when she had \u201cthis kind of awakening about the issues in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was talking about noncitizen voting, I saw the good and bad refugee narrative. I saw these intergenerational divisions,\u201d she said. \u201cI think advocacy is so hard to push for in the Vietnamese community because of those divisions. And because of the language barriers, because of those heritage barriers.\u201d<\/p>\n Part of VietRISE\u2019s goal and the goal of so many youth who\u2019ve spoken out, Hua said, is to press elected representatives to advance immigrant rights, housing justice and government accountability.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s important to listen to what our young people are telling us and what they want to see for our community,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause they are the inheritors of what we\u2019re building here.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey feel compelled enough to walk out of their classrooms, to take time out of their day to organize rallies, to speak up on social media in the face of backlash, in the face of people who disagree with them,\u201d Hua said. \u201cTell them that this is not a worthwhile endeavor.\u201d<\/p>\n Dragon dancers make their way through the UVSA Tet Festival, one of Little Saigon\u2019s popular annual celebrations of the Lunar New Year, on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2026. The Lunar New Year celebration featured dancing dragons, colorful costumes and traditional foods.on February 14, 2026. (Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n Community members watch the open ceremonies during the UVSA Tet Festival at Golden West College in Huntington Beach, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2026. The Lunar New Year celebration is one of the most popular celebrations in Orange County\u2019s Little Saigon. (Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n Maya Do, Seven Zenor and Sophia Tran, from left, at the VietRISE offices in Garden Grove, CA on Friday, February 13, 2026. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n Show Caption<\/p>\n 1 of 3<\/p>\n Dragon dancers make their way through the UVSA Tet Festival, one of Little Saigon\u2019s popular annual celebrations of the Lunar New Year, on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2026. The Lunar New Year celebration featured dancing dragons, colorful costumes and traditional foods.on February 14, 2026. (Photo by Michael Goulding, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n![\"Seven](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/OCR-L-YOUTHICE-0217-03-PB.jpg\")
<\/a>Seven Zenor at the VietRISE offices in Garden Grove, CA on Friday, February 13, 2026. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register\/SCNG)<\/p>\n![\"Sophia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/OCR-L-YOUTHICE-0217-04-PB.jpg\")
<\/a>Sophia Tran at the VietRISE offices in Garden Grove, CA on Friday, February 13, 2026. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register\/SCNG)<\/p>\n![\"Dragon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/OCR-L-YOUTHICE-0217-22.jpg\"\/)
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<\/p>\n![\"Maya](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/OCR-L-YOUTHICE-0217-01-PB.jpg?w=620\")
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