Judge delays deportations of Cambodians

Southeast Asia Resource Action Center

Cambodian activists protest the US’s repatriation policy outside the White House in Washington.

NINE MORE Cambodians have been deported from the United States and arrived in Phnom Penh Wednesday (Dec. 20) morning. They join the 78 other Cambodians who have been deported since a Donald Trump directive in September.
Another group of about 50 Cambodians were due to be sent back this month but get to spend the New Years in the U.S. after a district judge in California blocked their deportation. Their hearings are scheduled for Jan. 11.

Last week Judge Cormac J. Carney granted a temporary restraining order against the removal of the 50 Cambodians, most of whom are refugees.

“Given the speed with which the Government intends to remove Petitioners,” Carney wrote, “the Court finds that a temporary restraining order is necessary to stay removal until the Court can give proper consideration to the complex issues presented in this action.”

The additional time also will allow families of detainees to put together support letters or further documentation that may help them stay in the country.

Mavis Polyngam's husband Narun was detained by ICE only four months after they buried their 15-year-old son, who had been shot 27 times in the street, a bystander to gang violence in their hometown of Stockton, Calif. Polyngam, who battles depression, stated, "I don't know how I can go on living after losing both my son and my husband, my rock."

The government won't confirm the number but as many as 100 to 200 Cambodians nationwide may have been detained, according to community advocates. Most of them fled Cambodia as children with their families during the reign of the Khmer Rouge.

Officials said the roundup of Cambodians is part of an ongoing effort to repatriate Cambodian nationals who have committed crimes.

“The United States continues to work with the Government of Cambodia to establish a reliable processes for the issuance of travel documents and their acceptance of the prompt, lawful return of Cambodian nationals who are subject to removal from the United States," ICE spokeswoman Lauren Mack said in an email.

Staff with Asian Americans Advancing Justice in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and Sidley Austin LLP last month filed a national class action lawsuit challenging the detention of Cambodian immigrants by ICE, saying they are unlawful.

During the Obama administration, immigration officials were given great discretion to pursue options other than deportation. The priority went to cases of importance to national security and public safety.

Under the Trump administration, things changed. Essentially, anyone who is undocumented is a priority for removal or deportation. 

“There has been a lot of fear in the community because there have been so many people rounded up, over a hundred," said Katrina Dizon, immigration policy manager with the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, an advocacy group with offices in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.

Dizon said her group has fielded calls over a couple of weeks about Cambodian immigrants arrested nationwide, mostly in California.

"I have folks from Fresno, Monterey Park, Anaheim, Stockton, Orange, Long Beach, Oakland," Dizon said.

Cambodia has long been considered among so-called "recalcitrant" nations that do not fully cooperate with U.S. officials in accepting back deported nationals. While Cambodians have been deported over the years, U.S. officials have had problems getting that country's officials to issue travel documents, which are needed to repatriate deportees.

In September, the Trump administration announced visa sanctions against Cambodia, Eritra, Guinea, and Sierra Leone "due to lack of cooperation in accepting their nationals ordered removed from the United States." Temporary visitor visas for traveling Cambodians were discontinued as a result.

Jenny Zhao, a staff attorney for Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus, said many of the immigrants who were detained were lawful permanent residents with valid visas but were subject to deportation because of past criminal convictions. ICE was previously forced to release them because their home countries didn’t honor U.S. removal orders, she said.

The released Cambodians had to check in annually with authorities.

Since being given a second chance, most of them have lived normal American lives, attending school, going to work and supporting their families.

ICE spokeswoman Mack said the U.S. has more than 500 travel document requests pending with the Cambodian government, some dating back nearly a decade. She said there are more than 1,900 Cambodian nationals in the U.S. who have final deportation orders, and that the majority of these have criminal convictions committed when they were young.

The majority of the individuals facing deportation to Cambodia are people who came to the U.S. as refugee children, and who came into contact with the criminal justice system before their families were able to naturalize. All of them finished serving their sentences, and some had returned to their families and communities years ago, living transformed lives and supporting their loved ones.

"This is one of the largest round-ups the Southeast Asian American community has seen," said Quyen Dinh, executive director of SEARAC. "We call on both the U.S. and Cambodian governments to do the right thing by stopping the deportation of refugees. Our families have suffered enough for one lifetime. Enough is enough."

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