Issue Area: Deportation

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Background Information

Ties to the United States:

SEARAC is opposed to the removal of Cambodians to a country where they and members of their families suffered violence and torture. According to statistics from the INS, close to 1400 Cambodian-American refugees have orders of removal for deportation. These are part of the close to 200,000 Cambodian American population many of whom supported the United States during the Vietnam war and face severe repercussions if sent back to Cambodia.

Moreover, these 1400 people have strong ties to the United States along with weak linguistic and cultural skills to survive in Cambodia. In survey of Southeast Asians in detention showed that the average age of arrival to the United States was nine years old and the average length of time that detainees have lived in this country is 20 years. One-third of the detainees SEARAC spoke with said that they had American-born children and over half said they were their families' primary source of income.

Due Process Concerns

Many Southeast Asians that SEARAC has been in contact with accepted orders of removal in exchange for supervised release. Unaware that this repatriation agreement would be signed in the immediate future, several Cambodian detainees did not pursue appeals on their deportation orders thinking that the current repatriation agreement would never come to pass. In these cases many Cambodians did not have their cases heard by a judge and thoroughly reviewed. SEARAC asks INS Commissioner Ziglar to delay deportation of Cambodians until a thorough review process is in place.

Court Cases and Legislation

Under cases such as INS v. St. Cyr and Calcano Martinez v. INS, the Supreme Court restored rights to limited judicial review of orders of removal in federal courts, deciding that immigrants who pled guilty to crimes before the enactment of the 1996 immigration reform laws be eligible to apply for a waiver of deportation of which a large majority of detainees were not aware.

Currently Congress is debating several pieces of legislation such as The Family Reunification Act of 2002 (H.R. 1452), which would allow a cancellation of an order of removal for certain permanent residents for humanitarian or family reunification reasons. This law gives INS the power to keep families intact. We urge Congress to pass this important legislation that would ensure fairness in the detention and deportation process.

SEARAC is the only national advocacy organization working to advance the interests of Cambodians, Laotians and Vietnamese Americans through leadership development, capacity-building, and community empowerment. To learn more about the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center and Southeast Asian American communities, visit www.searac.org.