Vietnamese American leader arrested for protesting ICE director

Nancy Nguyen, a leader in Philadelphia's Vietnamese American community.

A prominent leader of a Vietnamese American community organization in Philadelphia was arrested Thursday night because of allegations of trespassing and littering during a protest against an ICE official who is a Vietnamese refugee.

Nancy Nguyen, 38, cofounder and executive director of VietLead, was held in police custody until Friday afternoon when she was released on her own recognizance.

On Sept. 9, she was protesting at the Virginia home of ICE head Tony Pham, by signs on his lawn expressing their concern over the treatment of federal immigration detainees, according to news reports.

VietLead asserted in a statement that Nguyen was arrested “on bogus charges for her activism in the immigrant rights movement.”

Newly named ICE director Pham told WRVA Newsradio, “It’s so disappointing that our level of discourse in today’s society has disintegrated to the [point] where individuals, as you saw, thought it was OK to target a mom and target children when the real protest should’ve been at my office.”

“Tony Pham continues to use his refugee narrative to justify his qualifications to lead an institution that continues to enact state-sanctioned violence against Black and Brown communities," said a statement from VietLead.

City Councilmember Helen Gym said she was “deeply disturbed about what appears to be a gross overreach to imprison a mother of two and a major Asian American leader in our community."