VTMBH Article: Body
Bronxites who hail from Cambodia rallied in DeVoe Park last week to protest a little-known new treaty that mandates the deportation of Cambodian immigrants with almost any kind of criminal record.
Calling themselves the sons and daughters of those who escaped the Khmer Rouge (the regime that committed widespread atrocities in Cambodia) many now fear that they or someone they know, will be running from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).
Starting last June, 27 people have been sent back to Cambodia according to Jane Bai, executive director of the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence (CAAAV), the Fordham-based group that organized the DeVoe protest. To date, none of those deported are from the Bronx.
But about 75 Bronx activists, mainly young people, showed their solidarity at the rally, one of several staged across the country on Nov. 8 to raise awareness about the little-known policy shift.
[The Cambodian community] is really upset and really scared, said Bai, who has worked with CAAAV since 1994.
The Bronx is home to 1,000 Cambodians, the largest concentration in the city, according to the 2000 Census. And though the number of those in the Fordham area have decreased in recent years, the neighborhood is still home to almost half the boroughs total, according to Dr. Bill Bosworth, who runs the Bronx Data Center at Lehman College. Arriving from Thai refugee camps in the early 1980s, the United Nations resettled many of those who escaped Cambodia in this area because of the inexpensive housing it offered.
Of those who fled Cambodias killing fieldswhich resulted in over a million deaths in the mid 1970sthe majority arrived in the United States as young people. The refugee resettlement program, which lasted for a limited time, left many of the new Americans in less than ideal situations. They couldnt be integrated into the economic and social life of the United States in their teenage years, said Bai, regarding Cambodian immigrants she has worked with.
Some fell in with rough crowds and engaged in criminal activity. One young man Bai worked with in 1999 got involved in a credit card scheme while in Oregon. When caught, he was put in detention. We got him a lawyer, remembers Bai. If CAAAV had not helped him get a trial, he would have remained in detention indefinitely.
This ability to detain changed last June following a Supreme Court ruling that prohibited the INS from detaining immigrant convicts from countries the United States didnt have diplomatic agreements with and therefore couldnt deport them to. Those countries included Iran, Laos, Vietnam, Cuba and Cambodia, but the State Department has since established a treaty with Cambodia, which has agreed to accept some 2,000 deportees.
A broad range of criminal offenses qualifies one for deportation. Aggravated felony, the catchall criteria stipulated in the immigration law, ranges from driving drunk to shoplifting. Many of these are crimes that young adults get mixed up in and regret later, advocates say.
[The treaty] made deportation mandatory with few exceptions, said Katherine Newell- Bierman, an attorney with the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium. [Deportees] cant stand before an immigration judge to plead their case. These are long-term residents that have families now or own a business. They simply need their day in court.
Its double jeopardy, Bai said. [The convicted] have served out their sentences. Yet the INS is punishing them again.
For those forced to leave, it will be a painful path to reintegrating in a country more foreign than familiar. Most [of the deportees] are not fluent in Khmer, Cambodias language, said Bai. The situation in Cambodia, while improving, is still unstable according to Newell-Bierman. [The deportees] are complete targets, she said. Many are put back in jail.
Upon signing the treaty, the State Department indicated it would provide grants and financial support for those deported. But how such a program would be implemented is still unsettled.
The deportations are resulting in broken families, advocates say. Their family members in Cambodia often have been killed, Bai said. Their family is here. These are primary income earners being taken away.
CAAAV is helping to raise awareness about the change before the treatys first anniversary next March. We are trying to keep building support, said Bai, who is reaching out to the large Cambodian communities in Massachusetts and along the west coast. CAAAV also runs a hotline for any individuals with deportation orders or their family members.
A bill with bipartisan support that would have allowed for waivers of deportation orders has been lost in Congressional shuffle since the election. We will be starting over with the new Congressional members dealing with the issue, said Newell-Bierman, whose organization lobbied heavily for the bill, known as the Family Reunification Act. The bill had support from Bronx Rep. José Serrano.
Ed. note: To contact the CAAAV hotline, call 718-220-2882.
Calling themselves the sons and daughters of those who escaped the Khmer Rouge (the regime that committed widespread atrocities in Cambodia) many now fear that they or someone they know, will be running from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).
Starting last June, 27 people have been sent back to Cambodia according to Jane Bai, executive director of the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence (CAAAV), the Fordham-based group that organized the DeVoe protest. To date, none of those deported are from the Bronx.
But about 75 Bronx activists, mainly young people, showed their solidarity at the rally, one of several staged across the country on Nov. 8 to raise awareness about the little-known policy shift.
[The Cambodian community] is really upset and really scared, said Bai, who has worked with CAAAV since 1994.
The Bronx is home to 1,000 Cambodians, the largest concentration in the city, according to the 2000 Census. And though the number of those in the Fordham area have decreased in recent years, the neighborhood is still home to almost half the boroughs total, according to Dr. Bill Bosworth, who runs the Bronx Data Center at Lehman College. Arriving from Thai refugee camps in the early 1980s, the United Nations resettled many of those who escaped Cambodia in this area because of the inexpensive housing it offered.
Of those who fled Cambodias killing fieldswhich resulted in over a million deaths in the mid 1970sthe majority arrived in the United States as young people. The refugee resettlement program, which lasted for a limited time, left many of the new Americans in less than ideal situations. They couldnt be integrated into the economic and social life of the United States in their teenage years, said Bai, regarding Cambodian immigrants she has worked with.
Some fell in with rough crowds and engaged in criminal activity. One young man Bai worked with in 1999 got involved in a credit card scheme while in Oregon. When caught, he was put in detention. We got him a lawyer, remembers Bai. If CAAAV had not helped him get a trial, he would have remained in detention indefinitely.
This ability to detain changed last June following a Supreme Court ruling that prohibited the INS from detaining immigrant convicts from countries the United States didnt have diplomatic agreements with and therefore couldnt deport them to. Those countries included Iran, Laos, Vietnam, Cuba and Cambodia, but the State Department has since established a treaty with Cambodia, which has agreed to accept some 2,000 deportees.
A broad range of criminal offenses qualifies one for deportation. Aggravated felony, the catchall criteria stipulated in the immigration law, ranges from driving drunk to shoplifting. Many of these are crimes that young adults get mixed up in and regret later, advocates say.
[The treaty] made deportation mandatory with few exceptions, said Katherine Newell- Bierman, an attorney with the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium. [Deportees] cant stand before an immigration judge to plead their case. These are long-term residents that have families now or own a business. They simply need their day in court.
Its double jeopardy, Bai said. [The convicted] have served out their sentences. Yet the INS is punishing them again.
For those forced to leave, it will be a painful path to reintegrating in a country more foreign than familiar. Most [of the deportees] are not fluent in Khmer, Cambodias language, said Bai. The situation in Cambodia, while improving, is still unstable according to Newell-Bierman. [The deportees] are complete targets, she said. Many are put back in jail.
Upon signing the treaty, the State Department indicated it would provide grants and financial support for those deported. But how such a program would be implemented is still unsettled.
The deportations are resulting in broken families, advocates say. Their family members in Cambodia often have been killed, Bai said. Their family is here. These are primary income earners being taken away.
CAAAV is helping to raise awareness about the change before the treatys first anniversary next March. We are trying to keep building support, said Bai, who is reaching out to the large Cambodian communities in Massachusetts and along the west coast. CAAAV also runs a hotline for any individuals with deportation orders or their family members.
A bill with bipartisan support that would have allowed for waivers of deportation orders has been lost in Congressional shuffle since the election. We will be starting over with the new Congressional members dealing with the issue, said Newell-Bierman, whose organization lobbied heavily for the bill, known as the Family Reunification Act. The bill had support from Bronx Rep. José Serrano.
Ed. note: To contact the CAAAV hotline, call 718-220-2882.