Duncan wrote: ↑Sun Jun 17, 2018 3:17 pm So how would a deportee arriving back in Cambodia apply for a family book a Cambodian ID card , a birth certificate and a drivers licence .

Deporting someone does not solve a problem it just creates more problems ,especially when they have already been punished under the law for their crime.

Lacking resources and support to help them thrive in the United States, many Cambodian refugees didn’t realize the limitations of their rights as legal permanent residents. Some learned the precariousness of their resident status only when immigration officials informed them out of nowhere that they were going to be deported to Cambodia.

Harsh 1996 immigration laws greatly expanded the list of crimes that could lead to the deportation of non-citizens. Hundreds of permanent U.S. residents from Cambodia with past criminal charges have found themselves returning in shackles to Cambodia—sometimes due to years-old nonviolent crimes for which they have already served their time. Crimes for which Cambodian refugees have been deported have included the possession of marijuana and buying stolen computer chips.

Some “returnees” have actually never set foot in Cambodia and speak no Khmer, having been born in Thai refugee camps. Most consider themselves fully American.

Cambodia has taken in 566 deportees since inking a 2002 pact with the US that opened the trap door on thousands of legal residents who had blots on their criminal records.

Authorities now want to revise a deal seen as a form of "double punishment" for deportees, many of whom were booted out years after finishing their prison sentences.
But unpicking the agreement is unlikely with President Donald Trump talking tough on immigration and immigrants with criminal pasts.

Many Cambodian refugees never thought to apply for full citizenship after they were granted permanent resident status in the US.

It wasn’t until years after they arrived, in 1996, that the US passed laws mandating deportation of non-citizens with a criminal record.