People pray outside a hearing in San Francisco over the deportation of an undocumented immigrant from Cambodia.

LOS ANGELES — Federal immigration officials were barred Thursday from conducting any more unannounced raids on Cambodian immigrants living in the US with deportation orders, dealing a blow to the Trump administration, which has significantly stepped up deportations of Southeast Asian immigrants.



Deportations from the US to Cambodia increased by 279% in 2018 compared to the previous year. In December, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted its largest deportation flight of Cambodian nationals with 36 people onboard.

On Thursday, however, Judge Cormac J. Carney in Los Angeles issued a temporary injunction, prohibiting ICE from conducting raids and, instead, ordering the government to give a 14-day written notice before detaining a Cambodian national with a deportation order.



"For years, ICE has been tearing Cambodian refugees from their families without any warning, giving them no chance to talk to a lawyer or even say goodbye to their loved ones," Jenny Zhao, staff attorney at Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus, told BuzzFeed News. "The judge has put a stop to that practice for now. It's inhumane and illegal."

The injunction is the latest turn in a legal fight against the Trump administration's effort to ramp up deportations to Cambodia. Many of those facing removal orders fled the country as war refugees or to escape the brutal Khmer Rouge and have not stepped foot in the country since they were children.

Attorneys with Zhao's organization filed suit against the government in October 2017 claiming that, although many of those being detained received deportation orders after being convicted of a crime, many have reported diligently to immigration officials, have not committed additional crimes, and have been detained and deported without notice or a chance to challenge their case.

Many of those affected received deportation orders years ago, but the Cambodian government has refused to issue travel documents. That changed when the Trump administration issued visa sanctions against the government, and began detaining Cambodian immigrants last year.

Nearly 1,900 Cambodian nationals are believed to be impacted by the order.