Minnesota State Representative Kaohly Vang Her, a member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, spoke on the state House floor about a bill modifying MinnesotaCare eligibility for undocumented immigrants.
During her speech, she shared details of her family’s immigration journey, initially suggesting that she and her parents entered the United States illegally. She later clarified this statement, confirming their legal status as U.S. citizens.
Initial Account and Subsequent Clarification
Vang Her opened up about her father’s role in bringing the family to the U.S. at the end of the Vietnam War, a time when she was also managing his end-of-life care.
She stated, “I’ve been spending a lot of time with my father, who brought us all to this country at the end of the Vietnam War, and I asked my father about how we came to the United States.”
She had assumed their entry was tied to her grandfather’s role as a colonel in the CIA-led “Secret War” in Laos, a covert operation during the Vietnam War era to counter communism. “I had thought that that meant that we had, we were in line to come to the U.S., and … my father told me that that was not true,” she said.
She explained that her father worked at the U.S. Consulate, processing refugee paperwork due to his English proficiency and typing skills.
“So they had my father move away from the refugee camp from my mom and my sisters and I, and he went to live at the consulate where he processed all the paperwork for the refugees that came to America,” she recounted. However, their family missed several opportunities to immigrate.
“And we had missed our time to come to the U.S. three times, and if we didn’t come that last time, we would not have been able to come to the U.S.,” she said.
Her mother clarified, “It wasn’t luck. We did not have our names on that list to come to the U.S. because even though your grandfather worked for the CIA … the only people that had names to come to the U.S. were if you were in the direct military and you worked for the CIA, you worked for USAID.”
Vang Her continued, “My parents’ Christian organization did not count. And so 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 (the uncle’s) mother.”
This led to her initial conclusion: “And so I am illegal in this country. My parents are illegal here in this country,” and “My family broke the law to come here. I never knew that. I just learned that now.”
Later, Vang Her revised her statement in an interview with the Minnesota Reformer, confirming that she and her parents are U.S. citizens. She noted that her parents took their citizenship test and that she became a citizen in middle school.
The Reformer reported, “(She) said her father technically broke the law when he filled out paperwork for the family to come to the U.S. as refugees. He did so to expedite the process to come to the U.S., though they would have come to America anyway.”
This clarification highlighted that while her father’s actions bent rules, their immigration status was ultimately legalized.
MinnesotaCare Eligibility Bill Moves Forward
The bill under discussion, HF1, expands MinnesotaCare eligibility to include “citizens or nationals of the United States; lawfully present noncitizens as defined in Code of Federal Regulations, title 45, section 155.20; and undocumented noncitizens.”
It passed narrowly in the state House on Monday with a 68-65 vote and later in the state Senate by a 37-30 margin. The legislation reflects Minnesota’s ongoing discussion about healthcare access for immigrants, regardless of legal status.
