Attorney General September 6, 1995 Order on Refugee Status Determinations

September 6, 1995

A.G. ORDER NO. 1988-95

By the authority vested in me as Attorney General under § 599D of the Foreign Operations Act of 1990, as amended, 8 U.S.C. § 1157 note, and after consultations with the appropriate representatives of the Department of State, I establish, for the purpose of making refugee status determinations, the following categories of aliens who are or were nationals and residents of Vietnam and who return to Vietnam from camps in countries of first asylum. These categories apply only to aliens who, during a fixed period to be established by the Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service after consultation with the Department of State, either return to Vietnam, or register to return and then return voluntarily pursuant to the registration:

1. Persons with three or more years of reeducation camp detention;

2. Persons with five or more years employment with the United States government or a United States company, nongovernmental organization or other United States institution, and those with shorter periods of employment in special circumstances such as training in the United States;

3. Persons with five or more years service, civil or military, with the former South Vietnamese government, and those with shorter periods of service if they were trained in the United States or decorated by the United States, or served with the United States Special Forces or intelligence agencies;

4. Spouses and children of persons who were detained for three or more years of reeducation or who died or suffered a permanent disability during a lesser period of detention;

5. Persons detained for at least one year because of political acts committed after April 1975; and

6. Persons who were religious leaders in Vietnam, such as monks, priests, ministers, and nuns of the major religions of Vietnam.

Janet Reno
Attorney General

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