A 35-year-old Montgomery County man sentenced to 12 years in prison for a string of home invasions is a Vietnamese immigrant who fell through society’s cracks after his family fled communist persecution in the wake of the American withdrawal.

Hung Tam Lam moved to the United States from a Thai refugee camp when he was 10 years old, court documents said. He was born in February 1975 during the Vietnam War and just two months before Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese army. Lam’s aunt was an interpreter in the U.S. Embassy, and when the communists took over she and her family were persecuted. The family survived in horrid conditions for 10 years, then fled to Thailand and six months later moved to Montgomery County.