Southeast Asian Deportation Relief Act of 2026

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [H.R. 7608 Introduced in House (IH)] <DOC> 119th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 7608 To halt removal of certain nationals of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, and for other purposes. _______________________________________________________________________ IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES February 20, 2026 Ms. Chu (for herself, Ms. Jayapal, Ms. Lofgren, Ms. Pressley, Mr. Amo, Mr. Bell, Ms. Clarke of New York, Mr. Garcia of California, Ms. Garcia of Texas, Mr. Goldman of New York, Mr. Gomez, Ms. Norton, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Mr. Khanna, Mr. Krishnamoorthi, Mr. Lieu, Ms. McCollum, Mr. McGovern, Ms. Meng, Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, Ms. Omar, Mrs. Ramirez, Ms. Scanlon, Ms. Simon, Mr. Smith of Washington, Mr. Thanedar, Ms. Tlaib, Mrs. Trahan, Mr. Vargas, Ms. Velazquez, and Ms. Williams of Georgia) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary _______________________________________________________________________ A BILL To halt removal of certain nationals of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ``Southeast Asian Deportation Relief Act of 2026''. SEC. 2. FINDINGS. Congress finds as follows: (1) Millions of Southeast Asian Americans live in the United States, including 2,182,735 Vietnamese Americans, 338,637 Cambodian Americans, 254,304 Laotian Americans, and 326,843 Hmong Americans, according to the 2019 American Community Survey. Many of these communities arrived as refugees beginning over 40 years ago from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam in the aftermath of the wars in Southeast Asia (more commonly known as the ``Vietnam War''). (2) The United States intervened in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam between 1954 and 1975, to prevent the spread of communism in Southeast Asia through direct military i