Note: this interview was conducted in March 2018, but released in August 2018, after confirmation of the case and current situation.

By Dorchester Post Staff with the support of the AARW.

In 2012, Nhan Sparks made a mistake and was arrested. Five years later, she turned her life around, living in the neighborhood of Dorchester, and raising her three daughters with her husband, Robert.


However, in October 2017, Nhan received a letter to have an earlier than scheduled check-in with Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE). This was a new process that she and the family had only experienced in the last year. “She never missed a day. Was never late,” Robert Sparks says to the Dorchester Post. “She took care of our three kids, the whole nine yards,” he said.

When Robert and his wife arrived at this unusually early appointment, they could immediately tell there was something different in the air.

“There were more officers, badges, and guns, handcuffs,” Sparks says.

For most of the prior appointments, Nhan would go alone. For this meeting, Nhan suggests to her husband that they grab a bite after her check-in. But Sparks said he “had a feeling that there wasn’t going to be an after.”

They were never called in early, so it made sense why Sparks felt something was wrong. They’ve been told to bring their travel documents “about a hundred times, that was nothing new.” But this time, they were getting asked questions about their children. Worried Nhan would face deportation, Sparks said to “tell the officers that I’m the worst dad in the world, that I need you, that without you I’m going to fall apart and die, the kids aren’t going to eat. Whatever you’re going to say, say what you have to say. Never say I can do it on my own.” Nhan told the officers that both her and Sparks were fully capable parents for their children. Following this, they heard the dreadful words, “Unfortunately, I’m going to have to take you into custody.”

“They cut it off her hand”

By the time Robert and Nhan realized, she wouldn’t be able to contact her children, Robert was escorted outside and then asked the officers if he would be able to see his wife again. “Probably not,” he says they answered. One of them came out of the room with a plastic bag filled with his wife’s jewelry that she couldn’t get off. “They cut it off her hand,” Sparks says. “ When they cut it off her, they cut her.”

He continues, “I know that people do wrong, they’re not supposed to get rights when they’re in prison, but she was out. She was doing nothing wrong. Paid taxes every year, she went to work every day. She left the house at 9 o’clock and came home at 9 o’clock. There were times I was working day and night. We were trying not to do anything bad. Just live a normal life.”

When asked how his kids took the news, Robert replied, “They’re still dealing with it.” He says despite their young age, they understood the gravity of the situation. “My kids are not stupid. They dealt with a lot when I was gone. But it was very tough for them. One parent is away, the money is depleted, there’s three of them. It’s not like I have one child.”

According to Robert, no one in the community was prepared. “I have a lot of Asian friends, tons of them. I grew up in Chinatown, I met a lot of people. No one ever got deported to Vietnam or China. No one. The first people I ever heard of getting deported were Cambodian kids. And that was recent. I told my wife, don’t worry, you’re not going anywhere. And then it’s suddenly, what?!”

Nhan was detained in Strafford County in New Hampshire. She was there for a month and a half. Robert along with their children was able to visit her four times. Kevin Lam, the Organizing Director with the Asian American Resource Workshop (AARW) in Dorchester who worked on Nhan’s case, says “She [Nhan] was detained October 2nd and was deported the Monday before Thanksgiving.” Sparks adds, “You know how fast that is? It was tough.”

Now being a single father, Robert is tight on money. “Things are tough without her. We had about $2,000 that we kept aside for emergencies. It’s gone.” After Nhan’s deportation, AARW organized a fundraising campaign and raised $3,000 to provide immediate support to the family.

Since her deportation, Nhan is staying with her mother in a small apartment in Vietnam and trying to stabilize her life there so she can continue to support her family and children. With Nhan ripped away from her children and family, Robert is still trying to cope and re-stabilize the family after her deportation. The Sparks family story is one of many more stories of how deportation is indefinitely ripping families apart, and putting community members who have served their time through a second form of punishment.

This is happening not only in the southern border but in our own neighborhood.

Community members who are vulnerable and/or impacted by detention and deportation can reach out to the Asian American Resource Workshop (AARW) for support by contacting kevin@aarw.org or calling (617) 209-7788.

Related: