Democrat State Rep Admits She's an Illegal Immigrant

A Minnesota State lawmaker told her colleagues on Monday that she is in the U.S. illegally, as is her family, and have been since fleeing Vietnam after the Vietnam War.

Rep. Kaohly Vang Her attended a special session of the Minnesota Legislature convened by Gov. Tim Walz on Monday, where lawmakers were debating about modifying MinnesotaCare eligibility for undocumented adult immigrants.

While arguments were being made, Her used the opportunity to share the story of how she arrived in the U.S., telling her colleagues that she is an illegal immigrant.

Her said she has been spending a lot of time with her father, who brought the family to the U.S. at the end of the Vietnam War. At one point, she asked her father how he brought the family to the U.S.

She previously believed that her family was granted entry into the U.S. because her grandfather was a colonel in the war. But her father told her that was not true.

Her father worked for the U.S. Consulate, Her said, and was one of the few there who could speak English and type "really fast."

Her said her father had moved to the consulate away from the refugee camp she, her mother and sisters lived at, and his job was to process all the paperwork for the refugees who came to America.

While working at the U.S. Consulate, Her’s family missed their opportunity to go to the U.S. three times, and there was one more time that they could attempt to go to the U.S.

Her told her mother they must have been lucky, but her mom said it was not luck.

"We did not have our names on that list to come to the U.S.," Her said, explaining that there was no priority for children of someone who worked for the CIA. "The only people that had names to come to the U.S. were if you were … in the military and you worked for the CIA or worked for USAID."

Her’s parents worked for a Christian organization, which also did not count. But they were able to find a way by fudging the paperwork, to get to the U.S.

"What my father did was, one of our uncles worked for USAID, and because his mother had died, my father, as the one processing the paperwork, put my grandmother down as his mother," Her said. "And so, I am illegal in this country. My parents are illegal here in this country. And when we were fleeing that situation, never one time did my family say, ‘Let’s look at which state has the greatest welfare and which state has the greatest benefits, because that’s the state we’re going to go to.’"

"Nobody leaves their country unless they have to leave that country," she added.

Her told the room of lawmakers she shared the story because she wanted them to think about who they are calling illegal immigrants.

Her’s family was "smarter" in how they came to the U.S., she said, although they broke the laws to get into the country.

"I never knew that," she said. "I just learned that now. So, when you’re thinking about voting no on this bill, you’re voting no against someone like me who paid more into this country than it has ever given to me, that the blood of my grandfather, who died for democracy, that he never received benefits being in this country, and yet he paid taxes his entire life into it."

Still, Her asked her colleagues to give everyone the same opportunity her family had, however they got to the U.S.

"They didn’t want to leave where they were," she said. "We are not looking to what state is going to give us the best benefits. We’re looking to just be alive."