Wrongly deported Cambodian American refugee returns to the US

Supporters celebrate Thy Chea’s return to the US. He’s seen here with his wife Victoria Un holding their children.

By Felix Poon
ASAM NEWS

Dozens of people Wednesday night held “Unjustly Deported” and “Welcome Home” signs at Boston Logan Airport  as they waited for Thy Chea, a 50-year old Cambodian American refugee and a Lowell, Massachusetts resident, who was deported in August 2018.

Bethany Li, director of the Asian Outreach Unit of the Greater Boston Legal Services, and  Chea’s attorney, said she was feeling incredibly happy and excited for Chea’s return.

“People want to be able to live and be with their families,” Li said, “and [the policies] under this administration are preventing that and it doesn’t help anyone.” Li said that Chea’s wife, Victoria Un, has had a hard time as a single parent raising their toddler daughter and one-year-old son.

“It’ll be really great to see (them reunited).”

Chea’s deportation stems from a criminal conviction in 1999, when Chea plead guilty to assault and battery and “threat to commit a crime.” He served three months in jail, and in 2000, federal officials ordered his removal from the country. Without a repatriation agreement between Cambodia and the U.S., Chea was allowed to remain in the country as long as he didn’t commit further crimes and checked in regularly with immigration officials.

In April 2018 ICE ordered Chea to report early for his routine check in.

“[Chea] and his wife and his daughter went with him…they thought it was a regular check in,” Li said.

But it wasn’t. Chea was detained. Li got an immigration judge to grant an emergency stay, but it came too late — just minutes after his plane took off for Cambodia, a country Chea fled at the age of 10 with his family to escape the brutal Khmer Rouge genocide.

Li kept fighting. She motioned to get Chea’s green card reinstated on the grounds that his offense was not deportable, and that he was sentenced incorrectly to a year in jail for an offense with a six month maximum sentence.

The judge denied the motion.

Li appealed. She succeeded in reinstating Chea’s green card in June 2019. But the U.S. consulate refused to issue his travel documents, and on top of that, DHS recharged Chea with entirely new proceedings of removal.

“This is crazy,” Li said of the proceedings.

“Enough was enough. We filed a mandamus in federal court, meaning we were asking the court to order the Department of State…to issue travel documents so that he could return home as a green card holder.”

That was in December 2019. After weeks of back and forth between Li and the DHS, the consulate finally issued Chea’s travel documents.

“Up up with liberation, down down with deportation,” the crowd chanted, before Chea’s wife Un got a phone call.

“Come downstairs,” Un and Li said into the phone.

Chea finally appeared. He squatted down with arms open, his two children ran to him laughing and crying, straight into his arms. A tearful and smiling Chea scooped them up.

“I’m so grateful to be with my family. It’s been 18 months. This is my kid,” Chea said looking at his one-year-old.

“It’s my first time holding him, and meeting him.”

Chea is the fourth Cambodian American in the country to return to the U.S. after being deported, and the first on the East Coast. According to ICE data, deportations of Cambodian Americans have increased by 279% from 2017 to 2018.

ICE has not returned a request for comment at the time of this publication.

Kevin Lam, organizing director for the Asian American Resource Workshop noted that it’s the 45th year anniversary of the Vietnam War. “Forty-five years later the US may have forgotten about the devastation that they’ve caused in Southeast Asia, but we have not,” Lam said as a rallying call. He said that Chea’s return is just one of many his organization is fighting for, and he asked for continued support as they advocate for them and those that are vulnerable for deportation.

Both Lam and Li are hopeful after Wednesday.

“When we fight, we win,” Li said.

“So we’re looking forward to welcoming many more people like Thy home.”

immigrant communities on edge as Trump postpones ICE raids

Trump is playing with us. I hate it! He tweeted this moments ago.

Immigrants all over the US and their allies and advocates are gearing up for Sunday when Donald Trump says a massive roundup of immigrants, refugees and undocumented is scheduled to begin.

Twitter has been humming ever since Trump issued his own tweet on earlier this week that the deportation of "millions" will take place next week beginning as early as Sunday morning. There are tweets with phone numbers for legal representation, how to behave if ICE knocks on your door and what rights do potential deportees have.

ICE agents reportedly will target immigrants in Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, Baltimore, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York City, and San Francisco for deportation as early as Sunday, sources told the Miami Herald.

"The people that Ice will apprehend have already been ordered to be deported," Trump tweeted. "This means that they have run from the law and run from the courts. These are people that are supposed to go back to their home country. They broke the law by coming into the country, & now by staying."

Particularly vulnerable are the thousands of South and Southeast Asian Americans -- Cambodians, Vietnamese, Laotians, Bengalis, Malaysians, Afghanis -- whose families to sought asylum from America's wars in Asia, religious and ethnic persecution, those who have had run-ins with the law (even minor violatins) when they were teenagers and who ICE has targeted for deportation in the past year.
One of several immigrant advocacy groups, Define American, offered this advice: 

1. You don’t have to open the door if an ICE agent comes to your home. ICE is only allowed to enter your home if they have a valid search or arrest warrant with your correct name &/or address, signed by a judge or magistrate, not an ICE official.

2. You have the right to remain silent and don’t have to answer any questions. 

3. Do not sign anything without a lawyer present. 

4. Record your interaction by phone and contact a lawyer immediately. 

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California governor pardons two Cambodian refugees

SEARAC

A demonstration in Sacramento preceded Gov. Gavin Newsom's pardons of two Cambodian Americans.

After weeks of lobbying by Asian American advocacy groups, California Gov. Gavin Newsom pardoned two Cambodian refugees facing deportation.

Kang Hen and Hay Hov received pardons from Newsom  Monday (May 13) preventing their immediate deportation by U.S. immigration authorities. 

“We are deeply grateful to Governor Newsom for recognizing the plight of refugees who are being targeted by the Trump administration and for acting with compassion and leadership to stop their deportations,” said Aarti Kohli, Executive Director of Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus.

Kang and Hay came to the United States as refugees with their families when they were children fleeing genocide under the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. 

Growing up in impoverished and hyper-criminalized neighborhoods, they made mistakes as youth and were swept into the criminal system. Under the Trump administration, becuse of their criminal records, they were eligible for deportation. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested them to deport them for decades-old crimes. 

Thousands of other Southeast Asian refugees who came to the United States as children also face deportation like Hay and Kang.

Gov. Jerry Brown, who preceded Newsom, pardoned five Cambodian refugees last year as the Trump administration ramped up its deportations of Asian immigrants, according to the governor’s office.

“The Cambodian refugee community is terrified,” said Kevin Lo, an attorney with the Asian Law Caucus.

Kang Hen fled genocide in Cambodia as a small child. Kang’s family was resettled as refugees in a violent neighborhood in San Jose. As a 12-year-old, Kang was pressured into joining a gang.

In 1994, shortly after his 18th birthday, Kang agreed to drive two friends away from a robbery they had just committed. He pleaded guilty to robbery and served time in prison. Since then, Kang has lived a law abiding life in San Francisco working at a seafood business for the past 13 years. Kang and his partner of 17 years, Ruth, have a 3-year-old child together. Recently, Ruth learned that she suffered from heart and kidney failure and may not survive. ICE arrested Kang on April 1 and planned to deport him next month.

Similarly, Hay also fled genocide in Cambodia as a small child and was resettled as a refugee in a violent neighborhood in East Oakland. As a child, Hay was beaten up, stabbed, and hit with a stray bullet. 

At the age of 19, Hay got into a verbal argument with an older man in his neighborhood. The feud between the two escalated as they exchanged verbal threats. The older man was shot in an unrelated argument and recovered. Hay was accused of escalating the feud and convicted of solicitation of murder. 

In the two decades since getting out of prison, Hay has stayed out of trouble and focused on caring for his family and working. On March 13, ICE agents arrested Hay and sought his deportation due to the conviction.

The governor's office says Newsom chose the two men because they have rehabilitated their lives since their convictions He also took into account that both their families would be harmed if Hen and Hov are deported, 

Hen is still in custody, but his lawyers hope Newsom’s pardon will mean he is spared from deportation, Lo said.

The campaign to #PardonRefugees was co-led by civil rights and community-based organizations, including Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus, Asian Prisoners Support Committee, Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, Empowering Marginalized Asian Communities, Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants, and Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity.

“California recognizes that it has made mistakes in the past leading to mass incarceration. For many immigrant youth, a criminal conviction carries consequences for the rest of their lives including deportation. We encourage Governor Newsom’s continued leadership in granting clemency to address mass incarceration and show that California will not be bullied by the Trump administration," said Anoop Prasad, Senior Staff Attorney with Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus."We hope to continue working with Governor Newsom on setting an example for the rest of the country,” said Prasad.

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Deportation of Cambodian American ends in tragedy

ASAM NEWS

The Providence Journal has published a moving story about a Cambodian American refugee who came to America at the age of 4.
Sophorn San built his life in Rhode Island. He was one of 5700 Cambodian refugees who lived in the state. His family escaped the genocide carried out by the Khmer Rouge that left 1.7 million to 3 million dead.

Now at the age of 27, San is dead --the victim of a motorcycle accident  that Phnom Penh police blame on a truck driver who is now facing charges for San’s death.

San was deported along with 35 others in December as part of a massive crackdown by the Trump administration that has sparked a huge surge of deportations.

“Although I am a Cambodian citizen on paper, I am in every other way an American,” he wrote in court papers, according to the Providence Journal. “I consider the United States to be my home and being deported to Cambodia would cause my family and I great trauma, as I have no connections in Cambodia.”

San pleaded guilty to possession of a handgun at age 19. He made his plea under the advice of a public defender who did not consider the plea would make San eligible for deportation.

He was arrested a second time in 2015 for resisting arrest, but it was the gun possession charge that eventually lead to his deportation.

His father recalls his last conversation with his son.

“We spoke with him 10 minutes before it happened,” San’s father, Chhith San, said. “He said he was going with some friends to get his Cambodian papers.”

“Just after it happened, they called me,” Say, Sophorn San’s mother, said, fighting back tears. “Then they took pictures and put it up on Facebook and sent them to me right away. I passed out when I saw them. I couldn’t believe it.”

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Sunday Read: How this citizen stopped ICE from arrested 2 immigrants

The immigration rights activist who shut down an attempted arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents says video of the incident shows how much of a role "knowing your rights" can play in determining how an encounter with ICE ends.

ICE agents have been carrying out Donald Trump's anti-immigrant and deportation policies with zeal usually striking fear in immigrants bringing their children to school, attending a hearing at courthouses or going to work. In one instance in New York, they picked on the wrong man.

Bryan MacCormack, 30, executive director of the Columbia County Sanctuary Movement in New York, told Newsweek he had been driving with two undocumented immigrants, whom he had accompanied to a courthouse to deal with minor traffic citations, when his vehicle was pulled over by ICE agents.

When approached by the agents, he told one of the immigrants to videotape the interaction.

In a video of the incident, which took place on March 5 in Hudson, New York, MacCormack, can be seen calling the ICE agent's attempt to frighten him into cooperation. 

When one of the ICE agents, presented what he called a "warrant of arrest."

Because he is involved in the sanctuary movement, McCormack knew his rights and called the agent's bluff. He pointed out the agent's warrant of arrest presented was an administrative warrant from the immigration agency, which does not require compliance, as opposed to a judicial warrant signed by a judge, which does.

In the video, MacCormack can be seen telling the ICE agent that the warrant of arrest he has is "not signed by a judge. It's not a judicial warrant. I have no obligation to oblige by that warrant." 



In a statement, the Columbia County Sanctuary Movement asserted that the officers "implicitly threatened" MacCormack "by asking if he knew section 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act pertaining to the harboring, transporting and smuggling of non-citizens."

In the video, the ICE agent speaking to the rights advocate eventually walks away, and MacCormack said he and the community members in his vehicle were able to safely exit the situation.

ICE spokesperson Khaalid Walls said in a statement to Newsweek that its agents had "specifically sought two unlawfully present foreign nationals" in the March 5 incident, but said "an individual [MacCormack] interfered with the enforcement action, causing officers to instead depart the scene to avoid further disruption."

Walls said ICE believes that "individuals who intervene in or seek to impede ICE officers while they are carrying out their mission recklessly endanger not only the enforcement personnel, but also the individuals targeted for arrest and potentially innocent bystanders."

"Those who engage in such actions expose themselves to potential criminal violations, and run the risk of harming the very people they purport to support," Walls said, adding: "Despite these attempts to obstruct ICE’s lawful efforts to apprehend criminal aliens and immigration violators, the agency remains committed to its efforts to uphold public safety."

MacCormack told Newsweek that he believes what the incident really shows is how undocumented immigrants knowing their rights can make "the difference between a community member being detained or deported or going home to their family. That's how serious knowing your rights is."

"It really is a Fourth Amendment issue," he said. "We all need to be upholding the Fourth Amendment and the Constitution to protect our rights and the rights of our community members."

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