Representative Derek Tran Issues Statement Following House Refusal To Condemn The Communist Regime Of Vietnam

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Representative Derek Tran (CA-45) issued the following statement after the House of Representatives voted on House Resolution 1490 :
“As the son of Vietnamese refugees, the atrocities committed under the communist regime of Vietnam remain incredibly personal to me and to the diaspora I represent in Orange County. That is why today I voted against House Resolution 1490, legislation that yet again purports to denounce socialism and yet makes no mention of the suffering our community experienced under the communist regime of Vietnam.
Once again, House Republicans refused to advance an amendment I introduced to acknowledge the economic devastation, flight of hundreds of thousands of refugees by boat, and reeducation camps that imprisoned over a million people following the fall of Saigon. I am deeply disappointed that this is the second attempt in less than a year by House Republicans to divide our community through a toothless resolution that does not confront the true, brutal reality that our families lived through.
As a Member of Congress, I have been unafraid to stand against communist and socialist governments that flagrantly violate human rights. I’ve pressured the Trump Administration to demand the release of prisoners of conscience, including Le Huu Minh Tuan. And I have fought to uplift the stories of the Vietnamese diaspora so that the communist regime cannot erase its atrocities.
What’s more, House Republicans used this resolution to call for the enactment of the SAVE America Act, a bill that erodes our democracy through dangerous voter suppression measures. It places onerous requirements on service members abroad seeking to cast their ballot, and would prevent millions of U.S. citizens from voting. Rather than prioritizing the urgent challenges facing our country, House Republicans are focused on passing a resolution that seeks to limit Americans’ constitutional rights.
I am focused on delivering results for our community, not political games designed to divide us. My work countering the scourge of communism and defending our democracy is too important to be reduced to a hyper-partisan exercise.”
Tran introduced an amendment to H. Res. 1940 that would acknowledge the atrocities of the Vietnamese communist regime. Following a meeting of the House Rules Committee, the amendment was rejected by House Republican leadership.
As the son of Vietnamese refugees and the first Vietnamese American elected to represent the world’s largest Vietnamese diaspora in Congress, Representative Tran is committed to uplifting and representing the Vietnamese community on the national stage. In an April 2026 letter to General Secretary Tô Lâm, Representative Tran demanded to visit prisoners of conscience imprisoned by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to monitor their well-being. Tran introduced a congressional resolution to formally mark April 30, 2026, as the 51st anniversary of Black April. In April 2025, Congressman Tran held a roundtable with Vietnamese human rights activists and former prisoners of conscience to uplift their firsthand accounts of the oppression they faced at the hands of the Vietnamese government. Tran, a vocal advocate for advancing human rights in Vietnam, co-led H.R. 3122, the bipartisan Vietnam Human Rights Act, to hold Vietnamese communist officials accountable for human rights abuses and establish human rights and fair-trade priorities for U.S.-Vietnam relations.
Representative Tran serves as the official sponsor of Le Huu Minh Tuan, a Vietnamese journalist who was wrongfully imprisoned by the communist government, through the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission’s Defending Freedoms Project, and continues to fight for the release of prisoners of conscience around the world. As his sponsor, Representative Tran wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio requesting immediate assistance in ensuring Le Huu Minh Tuan’s freedom.

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