lawyerlee
02-08-2006, 10:30 PM
This is so sad. :(
Grieving Mother Holds One Last Wish for Son (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/08/AR2006020802469.html)
Vietnamese Parents Seek U.S. Residency After Marine's Death
Washington Post
http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2006/02/08/PH2006020802591.jpg
By Karin Brulliard
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 9, 2006; Page A01
A weeping Kim-Hoan Thi Nguyen kissed her 7-year-old son goodbye at the Ho Chi Minh airport and told him it would be a long time before they would be together again. Little Binh Le boarded the plane and flew off to the States, where his mother hoped he would flourish. It was 1991.
She next saw Le when he visited Vietnam at 12. He cooked her french fries.
He visited again when he was 18 and a recent graduate of Edison High School in Fairfax County. They had a party.
Their next reunion came in December 2004. At his funeral, at Arlington National Cemetery.
Le, a Marine corporal and a Vietnamese citizen, was killed at age 20 while defending his desert base in Iraq. The month after his death, he was awarded U.S. citizenship in a ceremony at which speakers lauded his valor.
Nguyen, who has lived with a friend in Springfield since the funeral, wants to stay. Wracked with guilt that she sent her only child off to a life that was cut short, she wants only to lay flowers on his grave each Sunday. Yet, although parents of immigrants killed in combat are eligible for permanent residency, Nguyen's applications have been denied.
The reason: She and Le's father gave up their son for adoption to an aunt and uncle so he could emigrate with them.
Grieving Mother Holds One Last Wish for Son (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/08/AR2006020802469.html)
Vietnamese Parents Seek U.S. Residency After Marine's Death
Washington Post
http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2006/02/08/PH2006020802591.jpg
By Karin Brulliard
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 9, 2006; Page A01
A weeping Kim-Hoan Thi Nguyen kissed her 7-year-old son goodbye at the Ho Chi Minh airport and told him it would be a long time before they would be together again. Little Binh Le boarded the plane and flew off to the States, where his mother hoped he would flourish. It was 1991.
She next saw Le when he visited Vietnam at 12. He cooked her french fries.
He visited again when he was 18 and a recent graduate of Edison High School in Fairfax County. They had a party.
Their next reunion came in December 2004. At his funeral, at Arlington National Cemetery.
Le, a Marine corporal and a Vietnamese citizen, was killed at age 20 while defending his desert base in Iraq. The month after his death, he was awarded U.S. citizenship in a ceremony at which speakers lauded his valor.
Nguyen, who has lived with a friend in Springfield since the funeral, wants to stay. Wracked with guilt that she sent her only child off to a life that was cut short, she wants only to lay flowers on his grave each Sunday. Yet, although parents of immigrants killed in combat are eligible for permanent residency, Nguyen's applications have been denied.
The reason: She and Le's father gave up their son for adoption to an aunt and uncle so he could emigrate with them.