Dear President Obama: Congratulations on your historic trip to Laos as the first U.S. president to do so.

I am a 42-year-old Lao-American residing in Massachusetts. It is on my bucket list to visit with my own children and husband the country which my parents and four siblings escaped from.

While in Laos, you’ll talk about the legacy of the misleadingly named Vietnam War, because we know about the secret war in Laos. You’ll talk about U.S. missions in Laos that used the chemical spray Agent Orange to defoliate the countryside and to destroy crops, leaving a trail of awful health and environmental impacts we are just beginning to learn about, including congenital birth defects.  

You’ll talk about the dumping of munitions and undetonated bomblets maiming and killing adults and children who discover them by accident today. Thanks to the War Legacies Project, there is heightened U.S. awareness. Certainly, I did not learn this in my U.S. classroom.

On your trip, please keep in mind the struggles of Southeast Asian-Americans who settled in the U.S. as refugees experiencing poverty, crime, violence, racism, and the lack of resources and family support, like many other Americans generations.

There is Donnie Bouphavongsa, born in the U.S., whose parents I met in 2014 in the waiting room of a Massachusetts prison. He was sentenced as a teenager to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole in 1997.  

On Dec. 24, 2013, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued a decision that it is unconstitutional to sentence juveniles to life without the possibility of parole. Donnie has served more than the requisite 15 years and is eligible for parole. I learned recently that Donnie’s initial request was denied and he will be eligible again in a few years.  

Thappi Phomphakdy was granted parole in 2013 at the age of 29 for a second-degree murder conviction when he was 14. He recalls this family history, which was included in the parole decision:

His family emigrated from Laos to escape a violent political situation. He was born in Texas and moved with his parents to Lowell at the age of three. He spoke Laotian at home and English as his second language. His parents worked at the same factory, but different shifts.

He did not see much of his parents because of their work schedules; if one parent was working, the other parent was home but sleeping after a shift. He had one younger brother at the time and he spent considerable time “watching over” the brother. Because he was causing some problems at home, he was sent to live with his grandparents in California at age nine or ten.  

He was there for only one year, during which time he “felt abandoned and built up walls”  as a result. Upon returning to Lowell, he “hung with kids in the neighborhood; we were not a gang; we did regular kid things; other gangs though treated us like we were a gang; they chased us and beat us up; so we joined the Tiny Rascals gang; I was twelve.”

In the last census data, 20 percent of Laotians live in poverty compared to the 13.2 percent of the total population. Statistics show that 8 percent of Laotians are unemployed, compared to 4.2 percent of the total population; 9.4 percent have a bachelor’s degree. compared to 17 percent of the total population.

And 3 percent of Laotians have a graduate or professional degree in comparison to 10.2 percent of the U.S. population.  

And those deportation orders! According to a report by the Southeast Asian Resource Action Center, 13,000 Cambodian-, Laotian-, and Vietnamese-Americans have received final deportation orders, including legal permanent residents since 1998. Most of these cases involve adults who came here as infants and toddlers “fleeing the conflicts Southeast Asia as refugees with their families.”

Despite life being not all papaya salad and mangoes, Mr. President, Laotians are making America more American by engaging in public service, creating opportunities, shaping policy and defying the odds.

Have a wonderful time in Laos, Mr. President. I hope to someday do the same.

Vira Douangmany Cage of Amherst is a member of the Massachusetts Asian American Commission and is a candidate for the 3rd Hampshire District seat in the House.