Cambodian Americans petition California governor for pardons to prevent deportations

SCREEN CAPTURE / AL JAZEERA

Cambodian Americans protest deportations in Minneapolis.

A petition has been launched to have California Gov. Gavin Newsom grant pardons to Cambodian Americans who have committed crimes in their youth, served their time in prison or jail and who are not being targeted by the Trump administration for deportation.

Most of the Cambodian Americans, like Khmer Americans and Vietnamese Americans, came to this country as kids, as refugees, fleeing the violence in their war-torn home countries or escaping arrests for their support of the U.S. during the Vietnam War. 

“We have been struggling to survive for our entire lives,” said Borey “PJ” Ai, a Southeast Asian refugee with a pending pardon application. “We thought we had escaped persecution when our families fled their homes. We have experienced so much tragedy already, both abroad and in the US, and we fear that our lives and communities will now be destroyed by ICE." 

Many of the detainees are the children or grandchildren of the Khmer, Vietnamese and Cambodians who fought for the U.S. during the war and sought refugee status in this country to escape persecution. As second-generation immigrants, some of them have never visited  Cambodia nor speak the language.

The petition is sponsored by Asian Prisoner Support Committee, the Asian Law Caucus and the Daily Kos.

In the last few years, Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been conducting raids in Cambodian, Khmer and Vietnamese communities to send them to detention centers prior to deportation.

Under the Trump administration, the raids and arrests have increased dramatically. The ICE raids are the latest effort to bully the Cambodian government. The results have been devastating to children and families across the board. Some have spent several years out of prison and transformed their lives, buying homes, joining the workforce, starting businesses, and supporting families. Most of the Cambodian American detainees have served their time for their crime. The threat of deportation years later is an inhumane form of double punishment.

Besides California, raids and arrests have occurred in Cambodian and Khmer communities in Minneapolis, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Washington.

By granting pardons to those who face imminent deportation to Cambodia, California's Gov. Newsom can ensure they will be protected. Earlier this year a letter from the Cambodian American community and Asian Law Caucus asked the governor to support the community efforts.

Gov. Jerry Brown, Newsom's predecessor, gave pardons to some Cambodian Americans under ICE detention and prevented their deportation.

Asian Law Caucus successfully argued that the crimes committed by two Cambodian Americans men were not violent crimes as defined by a new ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court, thus allowing Phorn Tem and Veasna Meth to return to their families in Sacramento.

This Wednesday, March 13, many of them are scheduled for ICE check-ins. In the last few years, these appointments have been used to inform them about their pending deportation. Many of them are detained on the spot, torn from their families without any notice.

Sign the petition: Demand Governor Newsom grant pardons to Cambodian Americans in need to stop the deportations.

Our Message to Governor Gavin Newsom : 

We urge you to help keep Cambodian detainees home with their loved ones in California where they belong. Pardon and protect our community members who face imminent deportation, especially individuals like Amlorn Siratana, Hay Hov, and Roeun Pich and others who only know California to be their home.

READ the entire article at the Daily Kos. 

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Cambodians, & Vietnamese Americans on edge, fighting protesting deportations.

SCREEN CAPTURE / KTLA

Hundreds protested [ossible deportations of Vietnamese Americans in Westminister, Caalif.

ASAM NEWS & VIEWS FROM ThE EDGE

VIETNAMESE AMERICANS rallied Saturday in Orange County's Little Saigon to protest a move by the Trump administration to clear the way for the deportation of Vietnamese American refugees.

“Bao ve gia dinh. Bao ve gia dinh,” protesters repeated, demanding protection against separating families. More than 300,000 Vietnamese Americans and nationals live in Orange County, the largest Vietnamese population outside Vietnam, according to KTLA.  It includes parts of Westminster, Garden Grove and Santa Ana. Many of them came into the country in the 1990s as refugees of the Vietnam war.

Xuyen Dong-Matsuda, a mental health worker, urged the crowd of about 100 Saturday in Little Saigon to “fight for those who need our passion and our help.”

The White House is trying to renegotiate an agreement with Vietnam that protects refugees from deportation. A new agreement would enable the U.S. to deport some 8,000 Vietnamese Americans who committed a crime-even for minor offenses that they have already served jail sentences.

“We need to open our hearts and minds to offer others a second chance,” said Lan Nguyen, a filmmaker at the rally. Lan also expressed support for the Cambodian community which is now also living under the same threat.

Meanwhile, three Khmer American men in detention in the state of Washington and awaiting deportation to Cambodia have been freed, according to the International Examiner. 

In Washington state, three members of the so called Washington 7 have been freed from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

The Northwest Immigrants Right Project (NWIRP), Foster Pepper PLLC, Formerly Incarcerated Group Healing Together (FIGHT), and the Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs (CAPAA) and the ad hoc response group called the Khmer Anti-deportation Advocacy Group of Washington (KhAAG) worked to get two of the men freed.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee granted an emergency pardon for  Roeuth An. His mother recalled the shock she felt when he was taken into custody by ICE.

“When he [An] was five, the Khmer Rouge took him away from me, they don’t let you live with your parents anymore, ” said Ms. Lorng Raing, mother of Mr. Roeuth An. “When they [ICE] took him away, all those emotions came rushing back to me,” she told the International Examiner.

After the U.S. bullied Cambodia into accepting deportees, Cambodian officials agreed to accept more deportees from the U.S. Forty-six Cambodian Americans are supposed to be deported Monday (Dec. 17), the largest number of Cambodian deportees in history.

Most of the detained Cambodian Americans set to be deported have committed a crime for which they already served their sentence.

Attorneys have petitioned Gov. Jerry Brown to pardon the Cambodians which would prevent their deportation. The governor in the last 10 months has pardoned seven formerly incarcerated who otherwise would have been deported to Cambodia, drawing the ire of Donald Trump, whose administration has stepped up efforts to deport immigrants with criminal convictions.

In a rare step, the California Supreme Court has blocked one of Brown’s pardon's to a 37-year-old Borey Ai, who killed a woman when he was 14-years old, for which he served a 19-year sentence.

The court gave no reason for the rejection, but earlier noted it only had the authority to do so in the case of an “abuse of power.” Brown’s pardon would have effectively stopped Ai’s deportation to Cambodia, a nation where his mother was born but he has never seen.

This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.

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