Rest In Peace: Tam Tran

We are mourning the loss of a fellow Southeast Asian, an immigrant rights activist, and a Providence resident.

Our fellow Vietnamese sister Tam Tran died on Saturday, May 15, 2010, in a car crash in Maine. She was on her way to Providence to attend the S.E.A. The Future conference. Tam was an avid PrYSM supporter, and even recruited a few folks who did make there way to the conference, as it was the last thing that Tam asked them to do. One of Tam's best friends, Cynthia Felix , also died in the car crash. Cynthia was also undocumented, and she was also an immigrant rights activist at Brown.

Tam's parents were refugees from Vietnam who resettled in Germany, but because Germany does not grant birth-right citizenship, she was caught in legal limbo, when her family moved to the United States, and Tam found herself without a way to attain legal residency.

Tam graduated from UCLA before coming to Providence to enroll in a PhD program at Brown. She was a proficient film-maker and activist on behalf of the right for undocumented students to attend college and pay in-state tuition.

Tam Tran testified in May 2007 in front of Congress, advocating for the DREAM Act. When USA Today published an article on her testimony, her parents and brother were arrested and detained by ICE, and Tam was forced into hiding. But she kept on advocating and organizing. Only a month ago, she organized a Providence contingent to the May 1st March in Washington, D.C.

Tam, you have paved a road that we all follow, and many of us will continue to build. May you rest in peace and know that the struggle for justice continues.