According to the readings and the video, what i learned about refugee ”resettlement”, criminalization is that people from Cambodia fled there because they were being executed, forced to work(labor), starved, and mostly because of communist tyranny. Also in 1996 congress changed the immigration law to crack down on terrorism and illegal immigration. ICE would even deport you for a crime you did 7 years ago even if you did the time in jail already just because congress passed that law, for legal permanent residents sentenced to a year or more for “aggravated felonies” deportation is now mandatory. Also the ” Permanent Resident” status given to refugees when they arrived in the U.S did not give them all the rights and protections of citizenship, which means no translator to answer the 100 questions to become a citizen, the video stated that they didn’t know what to answer when they were taking the test. lastly currently 1,500 Cambodian-Americans await deportation.
Any questions i have is : Why welcome Immigrants with open arms then turn your back on them for something simple or a crime they did years ago?
Thoughts and feelings: It’s sad to see people go through so much just to have a better life outside of their countries and this reminded me of the kids who were (still in cages) and separated from their parents who were deported to Mexico and the when Trump sent ICE on a rampage to detain immigrants and deport them.
Well said. The absurdity of these stories is that (like in the story from the documentary) people are being deported for crimes they committed 7 years ago. Not only were the crimes committed ages ago, but those who committed them were already held accountable and went to jail for them. If they haven’t committed any crimes since, deporting them is stupid and doesn’t serve any purpose.