New Report: America once called on their help, but now S.E. Asian Americans are being targeted for deported

Southeast Asian Americans protest the continued targeting of their community for mass deportation. 

Southeast Asian American refugees are increasingly being detained and deported by Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Every few months, scores of Khmer Americans, who grew up in the US, are put on a plane and sent to Cambodia or Laos, countries some of the deportees never set foot in and don't speak the language.

A new report, "Southeast Asian American Journeys: A National Snapshot of Our Communities" was released Feb. 27, highlighting socioeconomic, housing, immigration, health, and education trends within the Southeast Asian American (SEAA) community in the United States. 

“At the heart of the Southeast Asian American refugee community’s 45-year history is a story of survivors, born out of the harrowing escape from war decades ago and continuing through the adversity faced upon US resettlement,” said Quyen Dinh, executive director of Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC).

Meant as a resource for policymakers, funders, community-based organizations, organizers, and the general public, the report by SEARAC in conjunction with Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Los Angeles (Advancing Justice-LA), captures key disaggregated data for SEAA refugee communities who fled the trauma of war and violence following the Vietnam War, Khmer Rouge genocide, and bombings in Laos to seek haven in the United States 45 years ago. 

This comprehensive national report also features statewide profiles, as well as individual refugee and resettlement narratives.

Click here to read the report.

In 1975, the US occupation in Southeast Asia ended with the largest mass resettlement of 1.1 million refugees in America’s history.
“Initially because the war in Vietnam was not popular in the U.S., when refugees came from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, they were met with hostility. They were not welcome at all," said Dr. Le Xuan Khoa, SEARAC’s second executive director

Due to the lack of key resettlement support systems, SEAA refugees were made to live in neighborhoods plagued by gang violence and failing schools while navigating unaddressed trauma from the wars and limited support for cultural integration. While these challenges and inequities still impact SEAAs today, this vibrant and resilient community has also navigated these obstacles to become critical, contributing members to the United States. Today, SEAAs number over 2.7 million people strong. 

With the support of community members and organizations, the study illuminates not only SEAA challenges but also their resilience and successes throughout the decades, from resettlement to growing up in low-income neighborhoods to fighting the school-to-prison-to-deportation pipeline. The data provides both national-level data, as well as state-specific data for California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Texas, and Washington—states with a sizable population of SEAAs. 

One key finding from this report revealed that nearly 30% of SEAAs have not completed high school or passed the GED, more than double the national average (13%). Out of all SEAA ethnic groups, Cambodian Americans are the least likely to hold a high school diploma. 

One interviewee shared, “I am the daughter of Cambodian refugees. Growing up, five of us lived in a tiny apartment in Chinatown. Gang violence was common. Poverty was evident. And yet, I always had a sense of hope because I could see what world was possible through my amazing public schools and libraries.”

“Through this report, we honor the courage, resilience, and love passed down from our elders and ancestors," said Dinh. "By centering this report on critical disaggregated data that is often masked by the myth of a thriving Asian American model minority, it is our hope that policymakers can implement the recommendations outlined so that our families can access pathways to thrive and flourish in this country that we now call home.”

Expect massive ICE raids after July 4th, says Trump; deportations of Cambodians already started

USCIS

Thousands of immigrants became Americans citizens this July 4th. This naturalization ceremony took place Southport, North Carolina.

This July 4th, as the United States celebrates it's Independence Day, and as thousands of new American citizens are sworn in on aircraft carriers, auditoriums, in courtrooms,museums, gyms and sporting events around the country, the Trump administration is readying a massive effort to deport thousands of other immigrants, refugees and visitors.

Donald Trump, stung by his quest to include a citizenship question on the Census form and the increasing pressure to improve conditions at detention centers near the Mexican border, swore that there will be a hike in ICE raids to deport "millions" of people after the July 4th holiday.

“We will be removing large numbers of people… starting sometime after July 4,” Trump said, having earlier noted that the deportations would begin “unless we do something pretty miraculous.”

U.S.  Immigration authorities, under orders from Trump, had earlier announced plans to launch a sweeping effort to deport recently arrived undocumented families.

“Even among the legal Asian immigrant population, anxiety levels are going up,” Karthick Ramakrishnan, chair of California’s Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs (APIA), told Public Radio International last month. “You have policies that are targeting even legal permanent residents now.”

For many Asian American immigrants, the deportation drive has already begun.

Indeed, as to signal the insincerity of the administration's intentions, A planeload of Cambodian American deportees landed in Pnnom Penh, Cambodia's capitol, as the US began Independence Day festivities.

Thirty-eight Cambodian refugees were deported back to Cambodia on July 3. Most of them were brought to this country by their families who sought asylum in the United States decades ago, fleeing the Khmer Rouge or because they fought for the U.S. in the Vietnam War.

The Acting Director of ICE, Mark Morgan, said the agency would target for deportation families that have received a removal order from a US immigration court.

Morgan said ICE wanted to deport undocumented families who had recently arrived in the U.S. to discourage more Central Americans from arriving. 

Trump had tweeted, before the formal kickoff of his 2020 re-election campaign, that ICE would begin removing “the millions” of undocumented immigrants in the US. 

The Cambodian Americans were easy pickings for Homeland Security. Most of them had been in detention since March.

All but two off the deportees had long ago served time for criminal convictions in the United States. They are part of a crackdown by the Trump administration to curb immigration to the United States from mostly non-White nations.

“It’s very detrimental to the community. It perpetuates this cycle of displacement and this cycle of breaking up families that has been going on since the Vietnam War and the conflicts (in Southeast Asia) that had U.S. involvement throughout the 1960s and 70s,” Bunthay Cheam, a Cambodian refugee affiliated with the Khmer Anti-Deportation Advocacy Group, said to The News Tribune.

“The barriers to reopening a case after deportation are high,” Kevin Lo of the Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco told the News Tribune.

1,900 Cambodians in the United States are facing the same fate. ICE says 1,400 have broken the law and have served their time. Many of the convictions were minor offenses, such as possession of small amounts of drugs, being part of a criminal gang as youngsters, or driving under the influence.

The number of deported Cambodian immigrants has increased 279 percent from 2017 to 2018.

Khmer veterans protest the deportation of fellow refugees.

According to Reuters, Trump sees his immigration crackdown as a cornerstone of his reelection bid.

Although the mainstream perception of people subject to deportation are from south of the border, the fastest growing group of undocumented immigrants come from Asian countries, according to the Pew Research Center.

More than tripling in 15 years, Asians make up for the fastest-growing undocumented group in the United States. Mexicans, in comparison, grew by only 21% in the same period.

To put that figure into perspective, undocumented Asians make 16% of all illegal aliens in the country. Additionally, this means one of every seven Asian immigrants is undocumented, according to AAPI Data.

The operation is expected to target up to 2,000 families facing deportation orders in as many as 10 U.S. cities, including Houston, Chicago, Miami, San Francisco and Los Angeles, according to a media report.

A spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) declined to comment, saying: “Due to law-enforcement sensitivities and the safety and security of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel, the agency will not offer specific details related to enforcement operations before the conclusion of those actions.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the country’s top Democrat, responded, saying, “The president’s new threat of a mass deportation dragnet is an act of utter malice and bigotry, designed solely to inject fear in our communities.”

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New court ruling allows Cambodian American deportee's return home

COURTESY OF METH FAMILY

Veasna Meth, second from left, was greeted by family and friends at San Francisco International Airport.

After five years in Cambodia and nine years in a U.S. prison, Veasna Meth is finally home.

“I knew one day I would be able to get back,” he told the Sacramento Bee Thursday (Mar. 1) upon his return to San Francisco International Airport.

Home for Meth is Sacramento, Calif. where he he has lived he grew up. He was 1-year old when he and his family immigrated to the U.S. as refugees. Between 1975 and 2000, the US accepted 145,000 Cambodian refugees as part of an influx of Cambodians displaced by war.

He was deported under Obama-era policies that prioritized the deportation of immigrants who had committed violent crimes.

In 2008, at the age of 19, Meth burglarized an unoccupied house by breaking in with friends. As soon as finished his year-long sentenced ICE tried to deport him. However, a judge ruled that his offense didn't justify deportation.

ICE persisted however and in their second try, they found a judge that approved Meth's deportation in 2014.

The Trump administration began visa sanctions on Cambodia, along with three other countries, in September 2017 to force them to accept deportees.

In April of last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Sessions v. Dimaya (Fiipino American James Dimaya) that the definition of “crime of violence” – which is grounds for deportation – was unconstitutionally vague. With the decision, the California conviction of residential burglary is no longer a removable offense, and within 30 days, Meth's attorneys from the San Francisco-based Asian Law Caucus challenged Meth’s old removal order.

“Mr Meth’s return from deportation gives hope that others will also be able to reunite with their families in the United States,” said Kevin Lo, one of Meth's lawyers. He notes that Meth is the second Cambodian to return home, who coincidentally is another Sacramento resident.

“I’m excited to see my kids and to be back on American soil,” Meth told the Khmer Times. “I don’t quite know how to express it, but I just want to go outside and kiss the ground.”

The Trump administration began visa sanctions on Cambodia, along with three other countries, in September 2017 to force them to accept deportees. About 1,900 Cambodians currently live in the United States with deportation orders. ICE has ramped up roundups and raids and expects to deport about 200 Cambodian refugees a year.

“For me to get deported to a country I wasn’t born in, it’s crazy,” Meth told the Sacramento Bee. “Growing up, all I thought I was, was a citizen. ... Nobody ever taught me, ‘Hey if you commit a crime you’re going to get deported’ (until) it was too late.”

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Cambodian Americans deportations continue; are Vietnamese Americans next?

THE CAMBODIA DAILY

Cambodian Americans have been fighting U.S. deportation policies for years.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Updated Dec. 19 to include final number of deportees.

THIRTY-SIX KHMER AMERICANS are in the air enroute to a country they've never set foot in before. Many don't speak the language.

The department of Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported the Cambodian refugees Monday from its detention center in El Paso, Texas. They are scheduled to land in the Cambodian capitol, Phnom Penh on Wednesday (Tuesday, PST).

Another 9,000 Vietnamese who sought asylum during and after the Vietnam War decades ago may also be at risk of deportation, as U.S. officials and Vietnamese officials this month to discuss reinterpreting an agreement protecting them from deportation.

The moves reflect the hardline stance against refugees of the Trump administration, which has widened the pool of deportees beyond recent arrivals to include those who have put down roots in the U.S, a generation ago.

An ICE official said it is policy not to comment on the deportation flights but representatives of immigration advocates and civil rights groups confirmed the departure from Texas.

Most of the people on the chartered jet on its way to Cambodia are men and a few women, according to Anoop Pasad, senior staff attorney with Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus.D Originally, 46 were to be on the flight by through pardon and other means of relief, the number was whittled down.

Pasad said his San Francisco-based organization of legal advocates represented six clients who were slated to be deported and five were able to get last-minute reprieves from their deportation orders.

"Almost everyone is leaving family behind," he said. "Almost no one has surviving family in Cambodia."

Katrina Dizon Mariategue, director of national policy for the Southeast Asian Resource Action Center in Washington, D.C., told NPR that Trump's policy is "short-sighted and very unfair."

"Many [of those being deported] were born in refugee camps," Mariategue said. "They don't speak the language, it's really hard to imagine a means of survival, especially because they don't know the culture."

ICE deported 79 Cambodians during Fiscal Year 2016, and 29 in Fiscal Year 2017. ICE told NPR in an email that the agency removed 110 Cambodian immigrants in Fiscal Year 2018.

Orders for deportation have been sent to 2,000 Khmer Americans. Most of them were convicted of crimes -- from minor charges such as driving under the influence to serious crimes that includes murder -- that they committed in their youth. After serving their sentences, most of them have become productive residents - holding jobs, going to school and raising families.

The Trump administration wants to expand its deportation policies to include Vietnamese Americans who have been in this country since the Vietnam War.  

The State Department said it would continue negotiations with Vietnam to repatriate some of its immigrants who've committed crimes. Like the Cambodian immigrants, many Vietnamese were resettled in the U.S. during and after the Vietnam War, said Melanie Kim, an attorney with Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus.

"These are not people who haven't been held accountable, these are all people who've gone through the criminal justice system, they have paid their debt to society," Doris Meissner, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, told NPR.

"It is true you are subject to deportation [if you break certain laws]," said Meissner, who headed the Immigration and Naturalization Service from 1993 to 2000. But it's not the same as what is depicted as "criminals on the loose" by the Trump administration, she said.

“We condemn the Trump Administration’s inhumane efforts to deport Cambodian community members right before the holidays, and we denounce the US government’s ongoing effort to change its historical interpretation on the ability to deport Vietnamese refugees,” said Quyen Dinh, executive director of SEARAC.

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