Officer Emily Pelayo trains members of the Safeguard Palm Beach Youth Academy for Palm Beach in using handcuffs at the South Fire Station June 10, 2025 in Palm Beach. Twenty participants attended the two day program hosted by Safeguard, a division of Palm Beach Police and Fire Foundation
San Diego, California – A San Diego man who has lived in the United States since arriving as a 12-year-old refugee from Vietnam was detained by federal immigration agents this week, more than two decades after a deportation order was issued against him.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents took 55-year-old Chuong Dong into custody Wednesday during his annual check-in appointment, leaving his wife, Christy Huynh, pleading for leniency. Dong, who has been married to Huynh for over 20 years and is the father of two U.S. citizen children, is now being held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center.
Dong’s case stretches back to 1989, when, as a teenager, he pleaded guilty to robbery on the advice of his public defender after stealing two speakers. Later charged with burglary while on probation, Dong served a prison sentence and was ordered removed in 1999. He was never deported, instead living under supervision and checking in regularly with ICE for more than 20 years.
In recent years, Dong has worked inspecting hospital and health care construction projects. His attorney, Adam Klugman, said letters of support from employers and colleagues describe him as reliable and dedicated. Dong has also filed a motion in San Diego County Court to vacate his conviction, citing a 2017 California law that allows a plea to be withdrawn if a defendant did not understand the immigration consequences at the time.
“This is a due process issue,” Klugman said. “If you had translated the concept of deportation into Vietnamese, he still would not have understood what that meant. Almost 40 years later, he is facing the consequences, even though he’s a changed man.”
Huynh said she and her husband went to Wednesday’s check-in expecting the routine 15-minute process. Instead, after hours of waiting, she was told to say goodbye. “I tried to explain to the officer that he had an active case going on,” she said. “He didn’t care.”
ICE officials defended the detention. “Chuong Dong is an illegal alien from Vietnam and a repeat felon,” Patrick Divver, San Diego’s ICE field office director, said in a statement. “Individuals who commit multiple violent felonies and defy lawful orders of removal will not be allowed to remain in the United States.”
Dong is due in state court on Aug. 26 for a hearing on his motion to vacate the decades-old conviction. But even if he succeeds, Klugman said his release from ICE custody would require federal prosecutors to exercise discretion and reopen his immigration proceedings—something they are not obligated to do.
Huynh said the uncertainty has been crushing. Her husband, who suffers from COPD, was the family’s main breadwinner. “Every time I sit alone, I just cry,” she said. “My entire life and family are here,” Dong wrote in his filing. “The United States is my only home.”
