Organization

Southeast Asian Freedom Network (SEAFN)


The Southeast Asian Freedom Network (SEAFN) is a U.S. coalition of Southeast Asian groups that works against the deportation of refugees and immigrants.[1][2] It was created in 2002 as a united front after a series of deportation raids against Cambodians across the country.[1] Cambodian, Vietnamese and Laotian advocacy groups have used it as a shared vehicle for national campaigns.[3] Its community includes people of Khmer, Lao, Montagnard, Hmong, Viet, Khmu and Iu Mien descent.[1]

History

The network traces its start to 2001, when Chhaya Chhoum of the Bronx, New York, sent a national call to community organizers to build a Southeast Asian grassroots movement and defend their communities from deportation.[4][1] SEAFN was formed the next year to bring that local work out of isolation. It began as a volunteer collective and grew into a national organization.[1][2]

In 2015, forty years after the first refugees were resettled, SEAFN helped launch a national campaign to end deportations in the Southeast Asian refugee community. The campaign sought to amend the 2002 repatriation agreement between Cambodia and the United States, adding limits like those in the 2008 agreement with Vietnam, and called for greater protections for Laotian and Vietnamese refugees.[3] That September its members toured 15 cities and met more than 500 people affected by deportation, and they planned a monthly video series from October 2015 through April 2016.[3]

In 2022 the network, with Nancy Nguyen as campaign director, supported people facing deportation to Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. It backed federal legislation that would set a five-year statute of limitations on removals and create a way for deportees to return.[5]

Southeast Asian Relief and Responsibility Campaign

SEAFN leads the Southeast Asian Relief and Responsibility (SEARR) Campaign, a multi-year effort carried out through its affiliate Southeast Asian-Action (SEA-Action) and tied to the 50th anniversary, in 2025, of the end of the U.S. wars in Southeast Asia.[2][6] The campaign seeks relief for Southeast Asians targeted for detention and deportation since the early 2000s, and asks the United States to take responsibility for the harm its military intervention caused in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.[6]

Its platform backs existing bills, among them the Victims of Agent Orange Relief Act, the Legacies of War Recognition and Unexploded Ordnance Removal Act and the New Way Forward Act.[6] It also proposes a Southeast Asian Deportation Relief Act (SEADRA). SEADRA would end detention and deportation for people from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam who arrived before 2008, extend work permits for those with final removal orders, limit immigration check-ins to one virtual visit every five years, and let people who were already deported return.[6] Over the course of the campaign SEAFN planned a tour of Taking Root, a docuseries by VietLead about Southeast Asian refugee resistance and rebuilding after resettlement.[2]

Community

SEAFN organizes around grassroots leadership, deportation and wider inequalities. Its work also covers survivors of gender-based violence, and it uses storytelling, culture and the arts to share its communities' stories.[2] It is supported by community donations.[4] The network is registered as a charity in several states and gives a mailing address in the Bronx, New York.[7]

Core network

The seven Southeast Asian-led organizations of the core network, as listed by SEAFN.[4]

  • Mekong NYC (New York)
  • Freedom, Inc. (Wisconsin)
  • MN8 (Minnesota)
  • ManForward (national)
  • KhAAG (Washington)
  • VietLead (Pennsylvania and New Jersey)
  • Providence Youth Student Movement (Rhode Island)

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Southeast Asian Freedom Network, About (2025)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Southeast Asian Freedom Network, home page
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 NBC News, Forty years after resettlement, thousands of Southeast Asian refugees face deportation (2015)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Southeast Asian Freedom Network, History
  5. ↑ LAist, Deported 11 years ago, Cambodian woman gets rare chance to return home to Long Beach (September 2022)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Southeast Asian Freedom Network, SEARR Campaign (2025)
  7. ↑ Southeast Asian Freedom Network, Solicitation disclosure
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This page was last edited on 27 September 2026, at 07:20.