The National Week of Action to End Southeast Asian Deportations began on Saturday, Jan. 19. Thirteen organizations across the country are uniting in 15 cities to uplift Southeast Asian-American communities as they continue to be terrorized by mass deportations and incarceration. These grassroots groups are calling on local leaders and Congress to champion policies to protect immigrants and refugees and end the criminalization and demonization of community members. At the very core, these actions highlight the voices and needs of a community often overlooked in mainstream conversations about immigration and deportations.
Southeast Asians, especially Cambodian refugees, are facing rampant deportations under the Trump regime. In 2017, the largest raid ever carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement happened in the Cambodian community; over 100 refugees were detained. In 2018, right before Christmas, 36 Cambodians were deported, finding themselves on a flight back to a country that many had never stepped foot in.
Although these numbers may not seem high, any deportation is one too many, and these numbers are significant for this group, at nearly triple what they were the previous year. Now, in 2019, community members continue to fear for their lives.
Around 16,000 Southeast Asians with permanent U.S. residence have received final deportation orders, according to the Southeast Asian Resource Action Center. The majority of them live in a state of limbo, susceptible to ICE detention and deportation at any moment. Just two weeks ago, on Jan. 4, after months of community advocacy, a judge ordered that ICE must now give 14 days’ notice before carrying out deportation orders against Cambodian refugees. This was a significant temporary win for Cambodian refugees, who now do not have to worry and fear that they will be separated from their families at any moment. However, it still leaves 14,000 Southeast Asians in flux.
Despite Donald Trump’s ceaseless railing against the Latino population, the Southeast Asian-American community is the largest refugee community ever to resettle in the United States. Many are refugees who were violently uprooted by events during the Vietnam War, during which the U.S. secretly bombed Cambodia with 2.7 million tons of explosives. This helped enable the Khmer Rouge’s rise to power, which led to a genocide that killed over 2 million people. In Laos, the United States government also carried out mass bombings. These American military interventions in Southeast Asia created the need for refugees to flee mass violence, but instead of receiving adequate resources and support in the U.S., the Southeast Asian community was and continues to be overlooked.
One reason for this neglect is the fact that Asian-Americans, as a racial group, are labeled as a “model minority” in the U.S. Although a seemingly benign stereotype, it was first coined in the 1960s to set Asian-Americans against black Americans during the height of the civil rights movement. Whether people still use the term or not today, the basic divisive ideology remains: If Asian-Americans can succeed and pull themselves up by their bootstraps, why can’t black people do the same? This racist sentiment is ingrained deep in America’s racial politics, and not only pits communities of color against each other, but also ignores centuries of U.S. enslavement and colonization. Additionally, it masks the gaping disparities within the Asian-American community itself.
Although some East Asians have higher education and income levels, Southeast Asians, specifically Hmong and Cambodians, are among the poorest groups in the country. Nearly 30 percent of Hmong families and 20 percent of Cambodian families in the U.S. live in poverty, compared to the national average of 11 percent. Because of the “model minority” myth, government funding, resources, and support for Southeast Asian communities remain scarce, and now the government has the audacity to mass-deport refugees that they themselves displaced and left under-resourced.
Although a sizable number of Southeast Asians are permanent residents, many have received deportation orders because of prior criminal convictions from decades ago, most of which they already served time for. California’s Borey “PJ” Ai is one of them.
PJ entered the U.S. as a refugee when he was 4 years old, after his family fled Cambodia. When he was in first grade, he witnessed his 7-year-old cousin shot to death. Bullied at school and on the streets, he turned to a gang for protection and acceptance. At 15, his gang involvement led him to be tried for murder as an adult. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. PJ had to grow up in prison, where he earned his GED and an associate’s degree in liberal arts and led state-wide juvenile justice reforms and rehabilitative programs. After two decades in prison, PJ was granted parole in 2016, only to be immediately arrested by ICE.
PJ, now 37, fought for months to get Gov. Jerry Brown to grant him a pardon before Brown left office in early 2019. A pardon would have removed PJ's conviction from his record, and thus ICE's ability to target him even after he’d served his full sentence. In his time as governor, Brown granted dozens of pardons, and with a push from grassroots groups, including over 30,000 Daily Kos community members who sent letters to his office, he even recommended a pardon for PJ. However, the California Supreme Court blocked Brown’s approval, citing that PJ’s crime could not be forgiven, a move it had not made in over 90 years.
Borey “PJ” Ai (right) reunites with his brother after being released. Attribution: APSC
To the community who continues to support him, PJ offered this:
Despite the setback from the court's decision to deny the Governor's request for approval of my pardon, I remain hopeful and optimistic because you are with me in this fight. Together, we made history during the course of the last two years with my pardon campaign. With your support and generosity, we were able to advocate for Governor Brown to consider my pardon—an accomplishment that would not have been possible without you. You are truly my hero and my teacher. You give me and my family hope when there are none to be had. I continue to be inspired by you all, and give my best to be a servant and a leader in our community. Thank you so much for being the light in dark places! You truly made a difference in my life.
Despite his encouragement and hope, the reality is still that PJ, along with thousands of other Southeast Asian refugees, are in a state of devastating limbo. Many of those deported or slated for deportation have lived nearly all their lives in the U.S. and are being forced to return to homes they’ve never known. Oftentimes, they do not speak the country’s languages, have never stepped foot in their supposed home country, and don’t identify with the culture. They are torn from their families and communities in the U.S., only to be forced to rebuild their lives without resources or support in countries ill-equipped to handle their arrival.
These stories are rarely told because mainstream focus on immigration in this country has been on Trump’s racist, xenophobic wall, and his heinous family separation policy, with good reason and complete justification. For years, the media’s focus has been on immigration as a solely “Latino” issue, even though the immigrants impacted by the border crisis come from all racial groups. Further, it’s rarely mentioned that in the last few years, Chinese, South Koreans, and Indians have been among the fastest-growing populations of undocumented immigrants.
Additionally, even before the Trump regime, mainstream conversations have only valued “good” immigrants versus “bad” immigrants. Those who work hard, succeed in school, and land respectable jobs are worthy of remaining in this country, while everyone else, this mindset maintains, does not “deserve” to be here. That’s yet another reason why so many turn an unsympathetic eye to the deportation of Southeast Asians with prior criminal convictions.
Yet these viewpoints completely lack compassion, and disregard the fact that these people are human beings who made mistakes as teenagers and have served their time. At the very least, our court systems are, in theory, supposed to forgive and seal juvenile crimes after time is served. PJ was granted parole in 2016 because the California Parole Board acknowledged his transformation. Since his release, he started working at a non-profit organization, Guiding Rage Into Power, where he provides support for rehabilitative programs in California state prisons, and interns with the Asian Prisoners Support Committee to provide re-entry support. Yet, after spending decades serving their time and now leading in the community, PJ and thousands of others are still hunted down by ICE officials today.
We must remember, and admit, that it was the American government that left these tens of thousands of refugees without a home decades ago. We must remember, and admit, that it was the American government’s refusal to support refugee populations that led these tens of thousands of children to grow up in poverty, while their parents suffered PTSD from the trauma of witnessing genocide and war. We must remember, and admit, that these traumatized individuals had little or no access to mental health care and other social support services.
Sahra V. Nguyen’s documentary series Deported is a great starting point to learn more about the Southeast Asian-American community and the rampant deportations tearing families apart.
Despite the mainstream media’s ignoring of the plight of the Southeast Asian-American community, its members continue to resist and organize across the country. Grassroots groups like the Asian Prisoner Support Committee, Southeast Asian Resource Action Center, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, VietLead, Providence Youth Student Movement, and the Khmer Anti-Deportation Advocacy Group are just some of those fighting relentlessly to stop these mass deportations.
On Thursday in California, they marched in Sacramento to call on new Gov. Gavin Newsom to resubmit clemency recommendations for all individuals eligible, and to continue to use his gubernatorial power to undo the damage the federal government and military have done. These advocacy groups continue to support their community members’ rights to remain in the country they have lived in and built their lives in for decades, long before the Trump regime.
Want to join the fight? Follow their work online. Sign up for the newsletters of the organizations participating in the National Week of Action to End Southeast Asian Deportations, amplify their posts and actions, stay informed, and educate others. That way, when, not if, the Trump administration announces its next round of atrocities against the Southeast Asian-American community, you’ll be ready.
