‘Absolutely horrible’: Mother of 4 deported to Vietnam after living in US for more than 30 years

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (WBAL) - A Maryland community has rallied to support Melissa Tran and her family over the past several months.

Tran, a nail salon owner, wife, and mother, has now been deported back to Vietnam.

She moved to the U.S. in 1993.

In 2001, when she was 20, Tran pleaded guilty to stealing money from her employer. She said she was pressured by an abusive boyfriend to do it.

Tran paid restitution and served jail time.

“She’s such a good person, and you know she paid her debt; she did wrong, she paid her debt, and it should not be like this,” Kitty Chamos, a family friend, said.

Tran went on to graduate from college, get married, and have four kids. She has also started a successful nail salon, while said to never miss a check-in with government officials.

But in May, she was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and held in detention for five months before a judge ordered her release because Vietnam had not issued her travel documents.

However, last Friday, Tran learned that Vietnam agreed to issue her a passport, and she was arrested and taken again to a detention center.

Tran’s husband says she was officially deported back to Vietnam on Monday.

“It’s just absolutely horrible to take her away from her family and her children. They’re going to suffer so badly. They already have. It’s just been a terrible ordeal,” Chamos said.

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