Deportations of Vietnamese, Cambodians leave Bay Area Asian immigrants shaken

More than 200 Vietnamese and Cambodian immigrants across the Bay Area and nationwide were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in October in never-before-seen roundups that have left communities shocked and fearful, according to local and national immigration activists.

Many of those detained have been transferred to detention centers in southern states as they await deportation. Others have already been sent back to their home countries, they said.

The sudden surge in ICE activity appears to spring in part from the Trump administration’s aggressive efforts to deport immigrants with criminal records, even in circumstances where their home countries haven’t traditionally cooperated with U.S. removal orders. In the past, immigrants in that situation have been allowed to stay in the U.S., but the Trump administration has been pressing Cambodia and Vietnam, in particular, to take back their deportees.

The result is that immigrants who have established roots and lives in the U.S. in spite of their eligibility for deportation are suddenly being detained and shipped out.

“I think it shook the community in that we haven’t been attacked this aggressively at all,” said Nate Tan, a member of the Asian Prisoner Support Committee in Oakland. “This is the first time.”

But administration officials say their actions are lawful and appropriate. Echoing a September statement from ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan, ICE spokesman James Schwab said Tuesday, “International law obligates each country to accept the return of its nationals ordered removed from the United States. The United States itself routinely cooperates with foreign governments in documenting and accepting its citizens when asked, as do the majority of countries in the world.”

Schwab declined to provide further comment and did not answer questions about the purported deportations, nor requests for data on the number of Vietnamese and Cambodian immigrants deported from the U.S. so far this year.

Vietnamese and U.S. officials in 2008 signed a repatriation memorandum that in part said Vietnamese immigrants who arrived in America before 1995 would not be subject to deportation. Activists, however, said some of the individuals detained in October arrived before 1995, leaving them to wonder whether some of these deportations are legal.

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 Trump Administration has been extremely aggressive toward countries that don’t take people back,” said Zhao. “We’ve been seeing a culmination in raids against these people.”

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.

Leaders from advocacy group VietUnity said the organization gets daily calls from Vietnamese community members whose relatives were recently deported.

“I think there’s this really common notion in the Vietnamese community that after the Vietnam War we all made it; we’re all U.S. citizens, we’re here and the government is going to support us,” said VietUnity activist Giao Tran. “We really need to dispel this myth that we’re here and we made it and the administration has our best interest in mind. We need to stand up for each other when our safety and daily life is at threat of being disrupted.”

Cambodia in 2002 signed a repatriation agreement with the United States which allowed for a certain number of Cambodian immigrants to be deported each year. But only this year have deportations among Cambodians spiked at these levels, according to activists. They said an estimated 500 Cambodians have been detained nationwide since the memo was signed, compared to 100 in October alone, making these the largest raids ever to target the Cambodian community. The Department of Homeland Security in September issued visa sanctions on Cambodia, Eritrea, Sierra Leone and Guinea, immediately halting all issuance of temporary visas.

Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said it had asked to renegotiate the countries’ repatriation agreement last year following concerns from Cambodian-Americans.

There are more than 1,900 Cambodian nationals residing in the U.S. who are subject to a final removal order, of whom 1,412 have criminal convictions, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

“American citizens have been harmed because foreign governments refuse to take back their citizens. These sanctions will ensure that the problem these countries pose will get no worse as ICE continues its work to remove dangerous criminals from the United States,” said ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan in September following announcement of the visa sanctions.

ICE agents came looking for Cathee Khamvongsa’s husband, Mony Neth, in Modesto on Oct. 19 while the 42-year-old Cambodian man was at work.

“I had no idea why they would ask for him but I told them to come back later,” said Khamvongsa. The agents returned at 5:30 a.m. the next day and arrested Neth as he left for work, she said. He was later transferred to a detention facility in Louisiana where he awaits deportation.

“The first day they took him, I couldn’t stop crying,” said Khamvongsa, a Laotian immigrant. “It’s been hard since he’s been gone. He’s the one that’s kept the family together. He pushes us to do things.”

Neth came to the U.S. at age 10 with his parents and three sisters, according to his wife. Fleeing the Khmer Rouge communist regime, the family settled in Modesto, where Neth got into trouble as a teen, she said.

Khamvongsa said Neth was convicted of possessing stolen guns at age 19 or 20. That led to a removal order in 2002 — the year Cambodian officials signed a repatriation agreement with the U.S. But Neth had turned his life around as an adult, she said. The couple, who have a 16-year-old daughter, have been active in their church and volunteered in their community.

“I don’t think it’s fair because I feel like everyone deserves a second chance,” said Khamvongsa. “When they detain people, they don’t look at each case as a personal case. They just characterize them as people who break the law and deserve to be deported. I feel like he deserves to be with his family.”

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