Joint Letter from 23 Organizations to US Administration regarding Vietnam’s Arrest Warrant against US citizen

March 3, 2026

Secretary Marco Rubio
Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
2201 C St. NW
Washington, DC 20451 

Chair Vicky Hartzler
U.S. Commission on International
Religious Freedom (USCIRF)
732 N. Capitol St NW
Washington, DC 20401 

Dear Secretary Rubio and Chair Hartzler: 

We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, write to you with deep concern regarding the Socialist Republic of Vietnam’s intensifying transnational repression against U.S. citizens, particularly Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thang, President and CEO of Boat People SOS (BPSOS). On January 30, 2026 Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS) issued its decision to prosecute and its arrest warrant to detain Dr. Thang, a U.S. citizen and an internationally known and well-respected advocate for religious freedom and other human rights, for the crime of “terrorism.”¹ 

It was not by coincidence that this escalation preceded by two days the 2026 International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit. On February 14, 2025, only days after last year’s IRF Summit, MPS officially condemned the event as “just a forum for hostile organizations and individuals to spread slanderous information and distort the truth about the situation of freedom of belief and religion in countries around the world, including Vietnam.”² 

Four days later, MPS labeled BPSOS a terrorism-linked organization and Dr. Thang a terrorism-linked individual, ostensibly because of the legal and moral support provided by BPSOS and Dr. Thang to another victim of the Vietnamese government’s transnational repression campaign, human rights defender Y Quynh Bdap. MPS charged that “[a]fter Y Quynh Bdap was detained and during the trial of Y Quynh Bdap by a Thai court, BPSOS continues to actively and diligently seek ways to protect and prevent the Thai court from deporting Y Quynh Bdap to Vietnam; raise funds for a Thai lawyer to participate in defending Y Quynh Bdap at the trial; and, together with H Biap Krong, a member of the terrorist organization [Montagnards Stand for Justice (MSFJ)], advocate with international organizations to support the activities of this organization.”³

In January 2024, Y Quynh Bdap, a young Montagnard Christian who co-founded the human rights organization MSFJ and who had been recognized as a refugee by the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Thailand, had been sentenced in absentia by a“mobile court” in Vietnam to 10 years in prison on fabricated charges of terrorism. In March 2024, MPS had designated MSFJ a terrorist organization. 

On November 28, 2025, Thai authorities extradited Y Quynh Bdap to Vietnam despite strong concerns expressed by many UN mandate holders, international human rights advocates, and Western government officials. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom(USCIRF) lists him as a religious prisoner of conscience.⁴ To justify its arrest warrant against Dr. Thang, MPS cited Y Quynh Bdap’s confession, obtained at his place of imprisonment and almost certainly under extreme duress.

This latest escalation in transnational repression by Vietnam’s MPS must be stopped. At the 2026 IRF Summit, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz stated the policy of theTrump Administration of treating foreign governments’ acts of transnational repression targeting

U.S. citizens are seen as infringing on the sovereignty of the United States. 

We respectfully call on your good offices to:

1. Designate Vietnam a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) under the terms of the Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act;
2. Apply targeted sanctions to the Vietnamese government officials, particularly MPS officials, who were behind the decision to prosecute Dr. Thang and to issue the arrest warrant against him;
3. Apply the newly expanded 212(a)(3)(C) visa ban against perpetrators of religious persecution against Christians in Vietnam, including Catholics, Montagnard Christians and Hmong Christians;
4. Work with other governments, particularly members of the International Religious Freedom and Belief Alliance (aka the Article 18Alliance), to send the strongest message possible to the leadership of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam about its use of transnational repression to intimidate and silence advocates for human rights, especially the right to freedom of religion or belief.

Respectfully,

Organizations: 

1. Advocates for Faith & Justice in Vietnam 
2. Assyrian International Council, California, USA 
3. Boat People SOS 
4. Buddhist Solidarity Association 
5. Cao Dai Tay Ninh Temples of Texas 
6. Caodaism Studies Institute 
7. ChinaAid Association 
8. Christian Freedom International 
9. Coalition to Abolish Modern-day Slavery in Asia (CAMSA) 
10. Fortify Rights 
11. FSI – Freedom Seekers International 
12. Friends of BSPOS – Oklahoma 
13. Friends of Thien Am 
14. Hmong Human Rights Coalition 
15. The Hoa Hao Buddhism group in Vietnam (independent) 
16. ICC – International Christian Concern 
17. The Jerusalem Interfaith Center 
18. Jubilee Campaign 
19. Montagnards Stand for Justice 
20. Vietnamese American Community of the USA 
21. Vietnamese Women for Human Rights 
22. Vietnam Coalition Against Torture 
23. Women’s Peace Network 

Individuals: 

1. Pastor Bob Fu, Founder and President of ChinaAid Association – Midland, Texas, USA 
2. Blessy Mathew Prasad, journalist and FoRB activist – India 
3. Tien D. Nguyen, Religious Freedom Advocate – Falls Church, Virginia ,USA 
4. Minh Luong Nguyen, Religious Freedom Advocate, Edmonton, AB. Canada
5. Ven. Thích Thông Siêu (Thanh Chuong Vo) – Garden Grove, California, USA
6. Benedict Rogers, Senior Director, Fortify Rights – London, UK
7. Tam Truong – Illinois, USA
8. Minh Le – Northern Virginia, USA
9. Tuyet Dinh, Vietnamese Women for Human Rights – Louisville, Kentucky, USA
10. Loan Nguyen, Advocates for Faith & Justice – Virginia, USA
11. Y Phic Hdok, Montagnards Stand for Justice – Orange County, California, USA
12. Minh Luong Nguyen, Coordinator, Buddhist Solidarity Association – Edmonton, Canada
13. Khanh Tran – Boat People SOS – Woodbridge, Virginia, USA
14. Nhan the Hoa, Caodaism Studies Institute – California, USA
15. Hai-Di Nguyen – London, UK
16. Karmella Borashan – Vice President, Assyrian International Council – California, USA
17. Lý Thanh Liêm, Saigon Movement – Phoenix, AZ, USA
18. Bùi Thảo Nhi, Alexandre De Rhodes Institute – Arlington, TX, USA
19. Dr. Phan Quang Trọng, Vietnamese American Community of the USA – Dallas, TX, USA
20. Thành Nguyễn – Killeen, Texas, USA
21. Thái Tăng Di Hạnh, Cao Dai follower – Rosemead,California, USA
22. Tanya Nguyen-Do – Friends of Thien Am – Florida, USA
23. Giaquoc Nguyen – Independent Journalist Association of Vietnam, Florida, USA
24. Deana Brown, Founder and CEO FSI – Freedom Seekers International, Texas, USA
25. Seo Gia Vang, Hmong Human Rights Coalition – Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA
26. Ann Buwada – Fairfax, Virginia, USA
27. Binh Tran, PharmD., President, Antelope Valley Vietnamese Association, California, USA
28. Sharifah Shakirah, Rohingya Human Rights Activist – Houston, Texas, USA
29. Peter P Trinh, Advocates for Faith & Justice – San Antonio, Texas, USA
30. Julia B Quan – Virginia, USA
31. Sarah Liu – Virginia, USA
32. Ty T Nguyen – Wincrest, Texas, USA
33. Lankim Phan, member of BPSOS – Orange County, Garden Grove, California, USA
34. Huyen Kim Bui, member of BPSOS – Orange County, Garden Grove, California, USA
35. Minhdao Le, Cao Dai Tay Ninh Temples of Texas – Dallas, Texas, USA
36. Michelle Nguyen, Vietnam Coalition Against Torture – Atlanta, Georgia, USA
37. Quang Pham, President, Friends of BPSOS Oklahoma – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA

1 https://bocongan.gov.vn/bai-viet/khoi-to-bat-bi-can-de-tam-giam-doi-voi-nguyen-dinh-thang-1769739753

2 https://dvov.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/PB-Cong-an-Ministry-of-Public-Security-on-IRF-Summit-2025.pdf

3 https://en.bocongan.gov.vn/terrorist-article/boat-people-sos-named-by-vietnamese-authority-as-terrorism-related-organization-1754319067

4 https://www.uscirf.gov/religious-prisoners-conscience/forb-victims-database/y-quynh-bdap