I feel blessed’: Deported Cambodian refugee from Sacramento returns home to family
November 04, 2018 05:00 AM
Updated 3 hours 44 minutes ago

Six months after he was deported to Cambodia, a country he has never visited and a place his family fled as refugees more than three decades ago, Phorn Tem returned Friday to the United States and his waiting family.

It was a surprise to his mother, Run Nhei, who thought she was at the San Francisco International Airport to meet a Cambodian embassy official. When Tem appeared at the arrivals gate, she wept.

“My son is here,” she whispered in her native Khmer as she kissed and hugged her eldest child for the first time in months.

Tem, 33, said he was “too tired to cry right now,” after an 11-hour flight from Taipei.
https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article220981385.html

Just out of curiosity why was his deportation recinded?

taabarang wrote: ↑Mon Nov 05, 2018 1:10 pm Just out of curiosity why was his deportation recinded?

Can't find a reason. It says he couldn't get citizenship because of previous convictions. Maybe that's a violation of his rights ? But, you are right, that there must be some reason for this exceptional about-turn by US authorities.

Immigration authorities detain Cambodians in nationwide sweep
November 6, 2017
Sarim “Sophie” Tem, Phorn Tem’s younger sister, said her family came to the U.S. from a refugee camp in Thailand when her brother was about 5. They first moved to Modesto before relocating to Sacramento where her uncle had already settled.

She said her family faced language barriers when they arrived, and lived in an area with high crime — factors she thought contributed to her brother having run-ins with the law. She and her other brothers, one currently in the Navy, became citizens. But Tem couldn’t because of his convictions.

Tem served time for weapons and drug charges and receiving stolen property in multiple cases in Sacramento in 2007 through 2009. In 2010, he had two misdemeanor driving under the influence charges.

Neither Ye nor Tem has faced criminal allegations in recent years, according to family and a search of court records.
http://www.gopusa.com/immigration-autho ... ide-sweep/

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: ↑Mon Nov 05, 2018 1:31 pm

taabarang wrote: ↑Mon Nov 05, 2018 1:10 pm Just out of curiosity why was his deportation recinded?

Can't find a reason. It says he couldn't get citizenship because of previous convictions. Maybe that's a violation of his rights ? But, you are right, that there must be some reason for this exceptional about-turn by US authorities.

The article says his deportation was rescinded because his underlying conviction was reversed on the basis that he wasn't informed of the immigration consequences of pleading guilty.

Interesting that the article only mentions him being convicted of possession of marijuana for sale and doesn't mention his convictions for weapons crimes.

Cam Nivag wrote: ↑Mon Nov 05, 2018 1:47 pm Interesting that the article only mentions him being convicted of possession of marijuana for sale and doesn't mention his convictions for weapons crimes.

That is interesting. Including the weapons crimes convictions would probably make him a less sympathetic 'victim' of this 'horrid' and 'draconian' deportation legislation.

Is this media bias or just lazy reporting?

Either way I miss the days of journalists telling it "the way it is." Like my favorite, the venerable Walter Cronkite.