Assemblyman Tyler Diep remembers what he saw as a wide-eyed 8-year-old boy arriving in San Diego with his mom and dad from their native Vietnam in 1991: “Clean. Quiet. Big, compared to Saigon.”
His parents had waited eight years to be allowed to come to America. They spoke no English when they settled into their first apartment near San Diego State University. They had no money, no job — nothing other than aspirations of attaining their piece of the American Dream. They could not have made it without a little help from the government in their home.
Last Monday, Diep, now 36, was flying from John Wayne Airport for another work week in Sacramento when he read a Washington Post report detailing the Trump Administration’s latest plan:
“Immigrants here legally who use public benefits — such as Medicaid, food stamps or housing assistance — could have a tougher time obtaining a green card under a policy change … that is at the center of the Trump administration’s effort to reduce immigration levels.”