Strangers in a strange land
The Trump Administration is ramping up its deportation of Southeast Asian immigrants, despite the devastation to families and communities left behind
2 January 2019

Many Cambodian immigrants who came to the USA as refugees are being sent back to “homelands” they have never known, Sally Tyler writes.

Most international attention surrounding the Trump Administration’s rhetoric-fueled immigration policy has focused on its constitutionally dubious travel ban for certain Muslim majority nations and its failure to achieve funding for the long-discussed wall along the US border with Mexico. Escaping broad attention has been its accelerated deportation of Southeast Asian immigrants, most of whom came to America decades ago as refugees.

A 19 December charter flight from Texas to Phnom Penh forcibly repatriated 36 Cambodians, making 2018 a record-breaking year for Cambodian deportations. Though attempts to deport Cambodian refugees who committed crimes in the US began in 2002 under George W Bush and were continued under the Obama Administration, Cambodia routinely refused to accept the detainees and the US did not press its case, perhaps in tacit acknowledgement of the role its covert bombing of Cambodia played in allowing the proliferation of the Khmer Rouge, the scourge from which most refugees had fled.

The Trump Administration, however, not known to be burdened by a long view of history; decided to prioritise the deportations and refused admission to the US of high-level Cambodian diplomats and their families in 2017 until the Cambodian government relented and began accepting detainees.

The nations of Vietnam and Laos had also been classified by the US State Department as “recalcitrant” because of their similar refusal to accept detainees, but an earlier diplomatic agreement which provided protection for those who had arrived from Vietnam prior to 1995 made it unlikely that those detainees would face deportation. The Trump Administration met with Vietnamese officials last month to pressure them into reinterpreting the agreement to allow for the commencement of large-scale deportations, making thousands more individuals at risk.

The circumstances of those being deported underscore the senseless nature of the policy. Though most of the detainees were convicted of a felony in the US, many committed their crime as teens and did not receive a trial, agreeing to plead guilty in exchange for a lesser sentence, not realising that a plea would make them automatically eligible for removal to their home country under US law.

https://www.policyforum.net/strangers-i ... ange-land/

Judge orders ICE to give notice before detaining some Cambodians for deportation
The temporary restraining order, granted Thursday, requires federal officials to give two-weeks written notice before re-detaining some Cambodian nationals.
Jan. 5, 2019 / 2:30 AM GMT+7
By Charles Lam

A federal judge has temporarily ordered immigration officials to stop re-detaining some Cambodian nationals in the U.S. with deportation orders without prior notice.

The temporary restraining order, granted Thursday by U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney, requires federal officials to give two-weeks written notice before they can re-detain the Cambodian nationals who have "received final orders of deportation or removal, and were subsequently released from ICE custody, and have not subsequently violated any criminal laws or conditions of their release, and have been or may be re-detained for removal by ICE."
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-amer ... ce-n954841

A judge's order comes too late for one Cambodian man
The temporary restraining order makes immigration officials give Cambodian nationals fourteen days notice.
Author: Elwyn Lopez
Published: 6:58 PM EST January 4, 2019
Fleeing war - that's how Sivath Yaing's sister, Joanna, says they came to the United States from Cambodia with their parents. A total of nine. The family found their home in Georgia 35 years ago.

Yaing was deported last December after getting a notice from Immigration and Customs Enforcement in September. "But in Sivath's case," attorney Van Huynh says,"it was particular that he received a notice to check in within a week."
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When he did, he was detained. Three months later, he was deported back to Cambodia. This is something that his sister said is a difficult adjustment.

"He doesn't read or write the language, he barely speaks it," Joanna Yaing told 11Alive's Elwyn Lopez.

On Thursday, a judge issued a temporary restraining order barring immigration enforcement officials from raids in the Cambodian community. And another thing that order does is make ICE give a 14 day written notice before detaining a Cambodian national. This is something that Huynh says could've helped Yaing's case, but came too late.

https://www.11alive.com/article/news/a- ... a56b7beb65

Deportation amid Trump administration crackdown
Tatiana Sanchez March 11, 2019 Updated: March 11, 2019 5:15 p.m.

A group of Cambodian refugees in the Bay Area received summonses to show up to ICE in San Francisco this week, where they’ll be detained and likely deported as part of a push by the Trump administration targeting immigrants with criminal records.

At least eight local Cambodians were asked to report to deportation officers at ICE headquarters on Sansome Street on Wednesday, and dozens more are expected to be detained across the United States this month, according to local advocates.

It’s the latest round of these deportations, as ICE cracks down on Cambodian refugees who committed crimes years or even decades ago, often as teenagers, that cost them their green cards and put them on a track to deportation.

Many of these immigrants tell similar stories: haunted by the trauma of war and genocide, they landed in impoverished neighborhoods in America where opportunities were limited and where they were bullied for being immigrants. They turned to drugs, gangs and crime to fit in, decisions that got them locked up for years and cost them their visas.

Their crimes were big and small. Some were charged with driving under the influence, others with murder. But as rehabilitated men with full-time jobs and families, they acknowledge their faults and say they deserve another chance, immigration attorneys say. Their predicament highlights the complexities of the immigration system, raising the question: Do they deserve to stay?
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/art ... 680462.php

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2019 8:09 am waaaaaaa
where my little fiddle

Many of these immigrants tell similar stories: haunted by the trauma of war and genocide, they landed in impoverished neighborhoods in America where opportunities were limited and where they were bullied for being immigrants. They turned to drugs, gangs and crime to fit in, decisions that got them locked up for years and cost them their visas.

for every 1 that turned to gangs/crime there were 1,000's, tens of thousands that didn't.

Problem many had is they never got their green cards as their parents were lacks about the process
I'm not without a heart and I do agree everyone needs a 2nd chance but ......its not always black & white when it comes to immigration.

My point has always been that these guys did the crime and they did the time as punishment. Had the judges added that they be deported after they had completed their sentence, then there would be no problems , but to add on deportation on to their sentence many years later sounds wrong to me.

If it was fair, then everyone that has committed a crime and been sentenced would be liable to have some extra punishment added to their their sentence many years later.

One year after Easter pardons, Cambodian refugees find fragile stability
April 20, 2019, 1:02 PM GMT+2
By Agnes Constante

LOS ANGELES — Sokha Chhan was relieved when he learned that he was granted a pardon from then-California Gov. Jerry Brown last year.

He had come to the United States from Cambodia as a war refugee about four decades ago, but faced possible deportation to the country that he barely remembered after being convicted of inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant and threatening a crime in 2002, for which he served about a year in prison. He was happy to know he would be able to stay with his community in Northern California.

“Even though it’s my birth country, it’s like going back to a foreign country with no family or friends,” Chhan, 50, told NBC News. “That’s why I’m happy I get to stay here with my children and my family.”

Chhan was one of two Cambodian nationals who came to the U.S. as refugees at risk of deportation who received gubernatorial pardons from Brown the Friday before Easter last year. The other was Phann Pheach, 36, a Southern California resident.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-amer ... ty-n995981

A biologist i know uses a deportee as a translator. Born in a thai camp, grew up in LA, became gang member, 5 years gaol then immediately deported aged 21.

Four of us spent 30 days circumnavigating the lake in the middle of the rainy season, in a boat the size of double bed. You get to know a bloke pretty well in those circumstances.

It was my impression that if he had had a normal upbringing he would have been a very good citizen. he was certainly of very good character. A real asset to have on board and great company..

My only problem was, by the end of the trip he had our 17 year old boat man, who was born and spent all his life in a remote floating village, talking like a full-on LA gang banger, complete with all the lingo and the secret hand signals.
Even though now a good man, our translator left the lake with the wickedest grin.

Kicked out of the US, Cambodian migrants are sent to a home they’ve never known
Separated from their family and friends, these deportees must fight against homesickness, depression and suicide as they adapt to their new lives. The programme Get Real investigates.
By Channel News Asia -
May 5, 2019
Phnom Penh – It had been a decade since he was released from prison. A reformed John Sreang Ly was living freely and had put his conviction for gun possession behind him.

But when the American permanent resident was at the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement last year, he was suddenly detained and subsequently deported to Cambodia, the country he had fled over 40 years ago because of the Khmer Rouge.

The deportation took place barely three days after his father’s death.

“I never got to bury my father. The only thing (I did) was to sign my dad’s death certificate, and I pulled the plug on him,” recounts the 51-year-old. “It affected me real bad that I wanted to commit suicide.”

Like many of his countrymen, he was deported from the US without notice. The law makes this possible once a permanent resident like him has a criminal record.
In full: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/as ... n-11502824

The TV program: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/vi ... ?cid=fbins