Shehnila Mehreen DB 10

In the article, ‘The Forgotten Asian Refugees Fed into the US Prison system’ by Kimberly Yam shares the adverse situation and struggles of life of a Cambodian refugee Phal Sok. To escape the deadly Communist regime his family had to flee from Cambodia in 1979. They took shelter in the land of opportunities, US in the hope of starting afresh their life. Probably life was not fair to him and he lost his father when he was just 16. He felt lost. Moreover, he was living with a constant fear of deportation back to Cambodia. There are many refugees and immigrants like Phal Sok who lives with such fear and the US’s Immigration Law adds a fuel to their worries. It is also mentioned that ICE targeted Southeast Asian refugee communities such as Vietnamese descent to force them out of the United States. These communities are unwilling to return to foreign states as they can’t imagine a better future. On the other hand, the ongoing uphill battle in their lives leads to long term stress in some people, some drop out of school and some engages in illegal activities. After reading this article, my first thoughts were they never quite enjoyed their life and had to live life in so much distress. The US’s immigration policy and Refugee Law needs to be reformed to raise the living standard of these people. They were given shelter to be in a better position than their own land. But unfortunately, they are in a scenario they never thought they had to see .