US deport dozens of Cambodians “despite legal residence”
The United States has expelled dozens of Cambodians who, as refugee children, came to the US in a legal manner. According to the American immigration police ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), the expulsions were justified because the Cambodians had committed “crimes” in the US. Reported by American channel NPR.
The crimes date from decades ago, and the perpetrators had to pay possible prison sentences. Nevertheless, a total of 46 Cambodians will return to Cambodia as part of a controversial repatriation program.
Many of them were born in refugee camps or, as young children, fled their parents for the communist regime of the Khmer Rouge (1975-1979).
“Beware of razzia”
Almost all deportees leave family behind in the US and no longer have any living relatives in Cambodia, said lawyer Anoop Prasad of the civil rights organization Asian Law Causus of San Francisco. He fights for the right of residence of the immigrants. According to NPR, the US already deported 110 Cambodians this year.
Prasad warned Cambodian immigrants on Twitter that the ICE is preparing an additional major raid for expulsion in January: “We find that an entire community is being wiped out”.
