MN House passes bill recognizing Hmong, Lao veterans of ‘Secret War'
A veterans and military affairs bill passed by the state House on Tuesday night creates a path to grant official state veteran status for fighters recruited into Special Guerrilla Units by the CIA during the Vietnam War to fight communist forces in Southeast Asia.
The anniversary of the fall of Saigon this week marks 50 years since the U.S. ended its involvement in Vietnam, and supporters of the bill gathered at the state Capitol with surviving veterans of the Secret War to call for greater recognition.
'Today, we say their service matters, their sacrifice matters, their story is American history,' said Rep. Jay Xiong, DFL-St. Paul, co-author of the veterans bill and the son and grandson of Hmong soldiers.
He added: 'Recognizing SGUs isn't just symbolic, it's a long overdue act of respect.'
Ya Lee, a Special Guerrilla Unit veteran who flew T-28 warplanes, said there is limited time to recognize surviving veterans for their sacrifices, and that they carry the 'burden of being forgotten.'
Lee, who said he is among 10 remaining T-28 pilots living in the U.S., was among dozens of veterans at the Capitol on Tuesday who showed up in military uniforms to support the bill.
At a news conference promoting the bill, Rep. Kaohly Vang Her, DFL-St. Paul, said it's not exactly clear how many SGU veterans remain in Minnesota, but that it's likely fewer than 1,000.
During the 1960s and 1970s, many groups across Southeast Asia found themselves drawn into a U.S. war against communist forces within and beyond the borders of Vietnam.
Many faced persecution by their governments as a result, with many hundreds of thousands fleeing their homes and eventually ending up in the U.S. But official recognition for their contributions to the war efforts remained elusive for decades.
The House passed a large veterans and military affairs bill containing the Secret War acknowledgement language by a vote of 126-6 on Tuesday, though it'll need a little more work since it differs from the version passed by the Senate. Once those have been smoothed over in a conference committee, the House and Senate will have to vote once again before it can go to Gov. Tim Walz.
If signed into law by the governor, the bill would create a definition for veterans of the Secret War in Laos and criteria for eligibility for benefits and privileges for veterans. Those include designation as a veteran on driver's licenses and ID cards, access to state veterans cemeteries, and access to preference in private employment.
Anyone who became a citizen under the Hmong Veterans Naturalization Act of 2000 will automatically get Secret War veteran status. Eligibility also extends to those who received a Medal of Honor, Purple Heart or other military award for service in support of the U.S. military operating in Laos.
Beyond immediate recognition of veterans who got citizenship for their service, the Minnesota commissioner of Veterans Affairs would be empowered to recognize veterans who served with a special guerrilla unit or other forces that operated from a base in Laos between February 1961 and May 1975.
A state task force created by the bill is charged with overseeing the process for official recognition. It is to include the Minnesota veterans commissioner, a U.S. Veterans Affairs Department official, a Hmong American Minnesota resident who served in the military, two Secret War veterans, a U.S. Vietnam veteran and other history and veterans' issues specialists.
While the bill creates a process to recognize anyone involved in the Secret War in Laos, a group backing a bill earlier this legislative session to recognize Vietnamese, Lao and Cambodian veterans expressed disappointment that language didn't mention those groups by name.
Bana Soumetho, who was born to Lao refugee parents in Thailand and has been working to establish explicit recognition for a broader group of Secret War veterans in state law, expressed her frustration in an email.
'This year marked what may have been the final meaningful opportunity for many of our aging veterans to receive public acknowledgment,' she wrote. 'Instead, it became a painful reminder of how easily their stories can be overlooked — even when the intent is recognition.'
Disability funding, taxes at issue as MN Legislature crafts state budget
Ethics panel: MN Senate President must disclose possible future conflicts
Concern over vaccine misinformation prompts UMN initiative to preserve data
Walz seeks GOP help on budget, blasts Trump 'chaos' in State of the State speech
Jim Gelbmann: Our partisan endorsement process is unrepresentative, polarizing and self-serving
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Texas legislator James Talarico on Democratic walkout: ‘It's time to fight back'
Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D) urged his party to 'fight back' on Sunday as Democratic legislators left the Lone Star State in an effort to block Republicans from advancing House maps that would hand the GOP five extra pick-up opportunities before the 2026 midterms. 'My Democratic colleagues and I just left the state of Texas to break quorum and stop Trump's redistricting power grab. Trump is trying to rig the midterm elections right before our eyes. But first he'll have to come through us,' Talarico said in a thread on the social platform X. 'It's time to fight back.' 'They're turning our districts into crazy shapes to guarantee the outcome they want in the 2026 elections. If this power grab succeeds, they will hang on to power without any accountability from the voters. But Texas Democrats are fighting back,' he added in a video posted on the site. The Democratic legislator, who has drawn attention recently after being featured on Joe Rogan's podcast, told NewsNation's 'The Hill' show last week that Trump and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) 'are trying to rig the next election.' 'I know that sounds dramatic, but … now by redrawing the political maps, they're trying to insulate themselves from the will of the voters,' he said. Talarico told KXAN late last week that he was open to breaking quorum to block the redistricting effort, but called such a move a 'last resort.' 'Breaking quorum is an extreme step, and it's not something that should be taken lightly,' he said. Texas state House Democrats said Sunday they were denying Republicans a quorum, or the least amount of lawmakers needed present in order to conduct legislative business, after a state House panel over the weekend advanced proposed congressional maps aiming to make Texas's district lines even friendlier to Republicans. Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu on Sunday accused Republicans of 'using an intentionally racist map to steal the voices of millions of Black and Latino Texans, all to execute a corrupt political deal.' 'Apathy is complicity, and we will not be complicit in the silencing of hard-working communities who have spent decades fighting for the power that Trump wants to steal,' Wu added in a statement. 'We're leaving the state, breaking quorum and preventing Republicans from silencing our voices and rigging the next election. We are not fighting for the Democratic Party. We are fighting for the democratic process, and the stakes could not be higher. We have to take a stand,' Talarico said Sunday.
Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
Texas Democrats Head to Chicago in Effort to Block Redistricting Map
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Texas Democrats on Sunday departed from the Lone Star State and headed to Chicago in an effort to prevent their state legislature from holding a vote that would approve Republican-backed redistricting maps. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, a Democrat, helped arrange for the trip during a meeting with the Texas caucus last month. He has directed his staff to assist the Texas lawmakers with any necessary support during their stay. Newsweek has reached out to Pritzker's office by email outside of normal business hours on Sunday. Why It Matters Historically, the party in the White House loses seats, and Republicans currently have a slim majority in both the U.S. House and Senate, giving Democrats hopes of retaking at least one of the houses of Congress in next year's midterms. Texas Republicans have sought to redraw the districting map in an effort to bolster nationwide party chances of retaining the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections. Republicans in other states with significant battleground contests coming up have also looked to follow a similar path. What To Know More than 51 Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives departed the state on Sunday, aiming to deny the chamber a quorum and prevent passage of a proposed Republican map before a scheduled floor vote. The Texas House requires the presence of at least 100 of its 150 members to conduct business. With only 62 Democratic members in the chamber, their collective absence can halt legislative proceedings, according to the Associated Press. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, had called a special session to address the flooding that killed 135 people last month in Texas Hill Country and the redistricting plan, which would redraw congressional boundaries and could potentially increase Republican-held seats from 25 to as many as 30 out of Texas' 38 districts. The AP reported that Trump urged Texas Republicans to redraw the map. The map targets Democratic-leaning areas in cities such as Austin, Dallas, Houston, and regions in south Texas. Republican leaders advanced their proposal through committee on Saturday and scheduled a key floor vote for Monday, prompting the Democrats' walkout. Texas Democrats had pulled a similar move in 2021 in order to block new voting restrictions that the state legislature was trying to pass. However, Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows warned his colleagues across the aisle that should they deny his party a quorum, then "all options will be on the table." Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton echoed that sentiment, writing on X that the party should use "every tool at our disposal" to deal with the runaway Democrats. Existing House rules allow for the arrest and fining of members for breaking quorum, including proposed $500-per-day fines, although they may prove difficult to enforce while lawmakers remain outside Texas, where state jurisdiction does not apply, according to ABC News. Texas Representative Gene Wu speaks to border and immigrant advocates, community members, and civil rights organizations protesting against immigration bills outside of the John H. Reagan State Office Building in Austin on April 12, 2023. Texas Representative Gene Wu speaks to border and immigrant advocates, community members, and civil rights organizations protesting against immigration bills outside of the John H. Reagan State Office Building in Austin on April 12, 2023. Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP via Getty Images What People Are Saying Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote on X on Sunday: "Democrats in the Texas House who try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately. We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law." Texas state Representative Gene Wu, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, in a statement: "This is not a decision we make lightly, but it is one we make with absolute moral clarity. We're not walking out on our responsibilities; we're walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent." Democratic Party Chair Ken Martin in a statement said: "For weeks, we've been warning that if Republicans in Texas want a showdown—if they want to delay flood relief to cravenly protect Donald Trump from an inevitable midterm meltdown—then we'd give them that showdown. That's exactly what Texas Democrats did today: blowing up Republicans' sham special session that's virtually ignored the plight of flood victims in Kerr County." What Happens Next? Texas Republicans will attempt to find legal means of passing the proposed redistricting, though that may lead to a drawn-out legal battle. The U.S. Supreme Court is already reviewing a dispute over redistricting in Louisiana, and earlier this year overturned a lower court decision that ruled South Carolina's congressional map was unconstitutional. This article includes reporting by the Associated Press.
Axios
2 hours ago
- Axios
Texas Dems leave state in bid to block Trump-backed redistricting vote
Over 50 Texas Democrats fled the state Sunday in an attempt to prevent Republicans from holding a vote in the state House on a new congressional district map. Why it matters: They're responding to a President Trump -led proposal to redraw the districts ahead of the 2026 midterm elections that could net Republicans up to five seats. The Democrats face a $500 fine for every day they break quorum. Fleeing the state now could be politically risky as the vote was due to take place during the state Legislature's special session that was also called in response to last month's deadly flooding in Central Texas. What they're saying: "Governor Abbott has turned the victims of a historic tragedy into political hostages in his submission to Donald Trump," Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu said in a Sunday statement. "He is using an intentionally racist map to steal the voices of millions of Black and Latino Texans, all to execute a corrupt political deal," he said. "We're leaving Texas to fight for Texans. We will not allow disaster relief to be held hostage to a Trump gerrymander," Wu added. "We're not walking out on our responsibilities; we're walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent. As of today, this corrupt special session is over." Flashback: Texas House Democrats have broken quorum twice in recent history — in 2021 to Washington, D.C., in response to proposed voting restrictions and to Ardmore, Oklahoma, in 2003 over redistricting. Both times only delayed the inevitable passage of the bills they had opposed. What we're watching: A large number of the Democrats were expected to arrive in Chicago Sunday and meet with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who last month hosted Texas state legislators in a strong show of support in the redistricting fight.
