In an interview with the
Reformer, Her clarified that she and her parents are U.S. citizens. Her is a refugee from Laos and moved to the U.S. when she was three. Her’s parents took their U.S. citizenship test, and Her became a citizen as a minor when she was in middle school, she said.
Her said her father technically broke the law when he filled out paperwork for the family to come to the U.S. as refugees. He did so to expedite the process to come to the U.S., though they would have come to America anyway.
Her came to America along with a wave of Hmong refugees, who were critical allies to the United States during the
Vietnam War and the “secret war” in Laos, assisting in intelligence operations, disrupting north Vietnamese supply routes and combating communism’s spread through Southeast Asia. Her’s grandfather was a colonel in the war, she said. As American allies, they faced violent recriminations from the communists after the war, which is why the U.S. welcomed them here, especially through laws like the Refugee Act of 1980.
Her’s father worked at the U.S. consulate, and he processed their family’s paperwork in a way to expedite their timeline to immigrate to the U.S. as refugees. People who were set to come to the U.S. as refugees could do so quicker if they had family connections to the military, CIA or USAID.
Her said her family didn’t qualify for those pipelines, but an uncle — in the Hmong familial sense of the word, i.e., a family friend — worked for USAID. When Her’s father processed the refugee paperwork, he claimed familial connection to the friend that worked for USAID, which wasn’t accurate.
“Technically, you would say my father broke the law, right? But we would have come anyway,” Her said.