October 25, 2019
Government seeks to reunite deportees with their US families

Foreign Affairs Minister Prak Sokhonn yesterday asked the United States to amend an agreement covering the repatriation of Cambodians who commit crimes in the US and also sought Germany’s help in the Kingdom’s bid to retain its Everything-but-arms trade status.

Mr Sokhonn yesterday held separate meetings with US Ambassador Patrick Murphy and German Ambassador Christian Berger at the ministry.

Koy Kuong, ministry spokesman, told the press after the meetings that Mr Sokhonn and Mr Murphy discussed past cooperation between the US and the Kingdom.

He noted that Mr Sokhonn requested the US to amend the repatriation agreement in order to allow deported Cambodians to visit their families who they leave behind.

“Minister Sokhonn requested that the MoU be amended so that those who have been deported for committing crimes can be allowed to visit their families in the United States,” he said. “Ambassador Murphy said that both parties [US and Cambodia] will work together to iron out the issue.”

“We are focused on humanitarian principles and we want to allow those who were deported to Cambodia to have the opportunity to meet and visit their relatives in the US,” Mr Kuong noted.

Bill Herod, spokesperson for the Khmer Vulnerability Aid Organisation, yesterday said via email that he has come to know many Cambodians repatriated from the US over the years.

“I am encouraged to know that the Cambodian government continues to seek a stop to family separations,” he said.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50654442/g ... -families/

%98 time ,these people ask for money or selling stolen tourists thing ,
If you ask even 1000 Riel's ,they never to give .why why ?

Advocates Call On Newsom to Stop Cambodian Refugee’s Potential Deportation
Tith Ton has spent 22 years in prison. ICE might deport him upon his release.
by Grace Li • 12/20/2019 5:34 pm - Updated 12/20/2019 5:44 pm
After living over half of his life in San Quentin State Prison, Tith Ton might not see freedom after his release.

Ton, a Cambodian refugee who immigrated to America to escape genocide in 1981, might get deported by ICE to a country he barely knows following his release. A 1996 immigration enforcement law makes it possible for ICE to deport him if he’s convicted of certain crimes, despite the fact that Ton has permanent residency.

Ton was recommended for parole on July 19. Once an inmate recommended for parole, the governor has 150 days to deny or grant it. Ton’s 150 days went by without incident and ended on Dec. 16, which means Ton was granted parole. He should be released within the next week, possibly on Christmas Eve. Community advocates are calling upon Governor Gavin Newsom to stop his potential deportation by intervening and telling California’s prison system (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation) to not hand Ton over to ICE. Newsom has stopped deportations for other Southeast Asian refugees before by pardoning them.

“We feel like we’ve been betrayed by the prison system,” Chan, Ton’s sister, says. “He’s done his time and he needs to come home like others.”

Ton has lived 22 years behind bars. Before that, he was born into a Khmer Rouge forced labor camp, where some of his siblings starved to death. The rest of his remaining family escaped to the United States where, according to Chan, they were offered no governmental support to recover from the trauma of running from genocide.

Chan believes Ton never had a chance. “We grew up in a very poor neighborhood,” Chan says. “Policing was really bad.” They grew up around violence. From the ages of 13 to 15, Ton witnessed it — he held his best friend as he bled to death in front of his house, according to his sister. Sometimes Ton had to dodge bullets himself.

Chan believes that the combination of regular violence and having little mental health support to recover from both ongoing and pre-existing trauma led him to joining a gang, which Ton hoped would protect him. But when he was 16, Ton killed a member from a rival gang. He pled guilty, was tried as an adult, and was sent to juvenile hall before going to state prison.

While in prison, he worked to turn his life around: He became a certified substance abuse counselor, got his GED, and graduated from an ethnic studies program called ROOTS. A Berkeley nonprofit, Options Recovery, has even offered him a job as a substance abuse counselor following his release.

But that progress may be futile if Ton is deported.
https://www.sfweekly.com/news/advocates ... portation/

In Boston immigration lawsuit, Cambodian father of 5 reunites with family for Christmas and judge issues stern reminder to ICE
Posted Dec 25, 2019
By Steph Solis

A federal judge has not officially ruled on alleged human rights violations against detained immigrants, but one of those detainees will get to spend Christmas with his family.

Soeun Kim, a new class member in the high-profile Boston immigration lawsuit, was ordered released Tuesday afternoon while questions about Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s treatment of detainees, including Kim, are reviewed in court.

“As respondents have repeatedly acknowledged in this case, separation of an alien from his or her citizen spouse and children is a form of irreparable harm,” Federal Judge Mark Wolf wrote in his latest order. “Kim is scheduled to be removed from the United States the week of January 5, 2020. Therefore, the opportunity to spend time with his family now is especially precious and irreplaceable.”

Kim was released Tuesday night, said Adriana Lafaille, an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. His release means he will be able to spend Christmas with his wife, Theresa St. Pierre-Kim, and their children, who currently live with St. Pierre-Kim’s parents in Florida.
https://www.masslive.com/politics/2019/ ... o-ice.html

The Trump Administration Just Quietly Deported 25 Cambodian Immigrants
Most have spent their whole lives here. Now they’re being sent to a country they barely know.
by Charles Dunst
January 15, 2020

The U.S. deported approximately 25 Cambodian immigrants on Wednesday—all but one came to the United States legally as refugees and have lived there for decades—according to a Cambodia-based nonprofit dedicated to resettling deportees. The cohort will be the first Cambodians deported in 2020, continuing the Trump-era surge in deportations of Vietnam War refugees.

The deportees, all men between the ages of 33 and 60, arrived in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh on January 15, according to Bill Herod, the founder of the Khmer Vulnerability Aid Organization (KVAO), which works to integrate Cambodian deportees into the country.

All of the individuals expelled have committed some crime that invalidated their permanent residency, Herod told me, making them eligible for deportation. But many of them have never before stepped foot in Cambodia; they were either born in Philippines or Thailand refugee camps to parents fleeing Khmer Rouge massacres and the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia that followed. Nevertheless, the Trump administration has increased the deportation of them, all the while substantially limiting legal immigration and asylum claims.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/01/1 ... -refugees/

After meeting some of these people I can understand why America doesn't want them. They constantly request money and/or are husseling to sell some stolen electronic gear.Give even the slightest opportunity they will steal from you while still pretending they are your friend,pal,homemee,. No doubt there are some who are trying to improve there situation through legitimate work , , , but I'm yet to meet any.

They should have obeyed the laws there as I respect Cambodian laws. Make no mistake, they were not deported over minor crimes and I believe they must have multiple offenses to be deported.

hanging too good for em

I'm one of the deported and I just wanted to say my crime was theft of a motor vehicle that ended up getting me deported to Cambodia. I just wanted to say most of the good hearted deportee live in the country side away from the city life

iHateMyLife wrote: ↑Fri Jan 17, 2020 6:30 am I'm one of the deported and I just wanted to say my crime was theft of a motor vehicle that ended up getting me deported to Cambodia. I just wanted to say most of the good hearted deportee live in the country side away from the city life

My sympathy's to you, I personally don't see why you should be punished twice,, and for the rest of your life,,,, unless that is what the judge sentenced you to after you committed the crime of stealing the motor vehicle.