When laws break people: Cambodian immigrant voices

Michelle Chen

When laws break people: Cambodian immigrant voices

Cambodian bboys.jpg

Tonight on WBAI’s Asia Pacific Forum, two stories of Cambodian-Americans uprooted by deportation reveal the human impact of little-known aspects of immigration policy.

A segment on Keo and Borom Chea, sister and brother, reveals how laws that are ostensibly intended to kick out criminals end up splitting apart families. This is often a hugely disproportionate penalty for relatively minor offenses that have been deemed “aggravated felonies.” Keo, who now serves as counsel for a congressional subcommittee, describes the irony of settling in America to seek refuge from war and displacement, only to be devastated by forced migration once again, this time at the hands of the US government.

But on both sides of the globe, the crisis of displacement can also inspire creative empowerment. The show also looks at how one Cambodian refugee-turned-deportee has made the most out of his exile. Former gang-member Tuy Sobil (aka K.K.) imported hip hop culture from the streets of Long Beach to the slums of Phnom Penh with a youth initiative that now reverberates around the world. Some borders are more easily broken than others.

Chea and K.K.'s stories are also featured in a documentary on repatriated Cambodians, "Straight Refugees."

Image from Tiny Toones Cambodia website.

Posted at 7:56 PM, Feb 10, 2009 in Immigration | Permalink | View Comments

Comments

This is an incredibly urgent issue that is affecting a wide range of immigrant communities and I think it's important that we continue to press for major reforms of U.S. immigration law. Indeed, we probably ought to call for the complete rescission of the anti-immigrant legislation that was passed under the Bush Administration and the Clinton Administration before it.

In meantime, another set of issues to pay attention to is the condition of immigrants in detention as they are being processed for deportation...please see http://www.nj-civilrights.org/ for fights in New Jersey.

This is a complex issue that demonstrates the lack of political clout on the part of Cambodian Americans. I have written extensively about immigrant struggles on my blog.