If I was a refugee, I hope I would try to obey the laws in that host country...
It's not like these people some how found themselves magically transported to a strange land, (although for most of them, the USA must have been both strange and magical compared to Vietnam) and their past felones were being held against them...nope...they came to this land, unwanted by a large percentage of the population...many of whom had served in a war against their home country, and, instead of trying to fit in and following the laws, they committed crimes...that, had they been from almost any other country, would have earned them a quick ticket back to their home country immediately.