Category: Discussion Board 10

Kimberly Yama’s “Forgotten Asian Refugees in American Prison” explains how the Cambodian people had a rough migration process. This article showed how the suffered in the United States, where they were supposed to move to and start a new life. It is a shame how these humans were treated. The United States gave them shelter but treated them with no respect.

These articles brought life to how poorly the United States treated these Asian immigrants. I was really interested to learn of this. The articles explained the extreme conditions ICE enforced during immigration process. Some refugees were in so much turmoil from being so poorly treated they turned to suicide. This is very shameful for our country and I am glad things have changed for the better.

 

 

Resettlement especially here in the United States at the time of these stories was extremely corrupt on a national level. The idea of resettlement was to allow refugees (at the time war refugees from the Pol Pot regime) resettled to the United States as a form of asylum. Rather training these refugees for a future in the united states and subsequent citizenship, instead they were subjected to the harsh conditions in poor housing. Neighborhoods that were run with crime and poverty stricken, and the intense scrutiny of law enforcement such as discriminatory stop and frisking and detainment. These justice system lead to many minors convicted as adults spending majority of their later adolescence/early adult years as felons. Youth lacked structure and with no basic understanding of the United States justice system often turned to crime and street violence as a response. These refugees are also not advocated for. The only voice they have are themselves. This was especially shown in Ra’s case when she described how resettling in the Bronx, although there was an extremely large Cambodian community, there was so representation of their existence including any advocation for them. The criminalization and impact of immigration of SE  were also severe and unjust. Crimes committed years ago and time served are ignored. Deportation was made a law mandate meaning many SE refugees who committed crimes and even served time were subjected to mandatory deportation to country of origin. This also includes those who came to the United States an infant. Immigration itself is political but seeing the corruption at the local level and the lack of advocacy at the national level is disheartening but not surprising.  Being made aware that as a country, we have gone to the extent of denying refugees entrance who come from communist countries (since America was on a mission of anti-communism rhetoric) just shows in itself how ethnocentric we are as a society-again at the National level. My main question is while things can be done with state legislation and learning about advocacy groups, what can be done on the local level to prevent corruption in the system? For example, the discrimination many Cambodian and Vietnamese immigrants experienced from law enforcement?  My other question is more rhetorical. As a country, the structures, laws, and way we operate is in part because of immigrants. Immigrations helps this country’s economy and social acceptance of societies outside ours. At the national level, why (at the time) why wasn’t there a legal system established to both advocate for refugees that resettled here and helping them integrate into American society?

In an article, Kimberly Yama’s “Forgotten Asian Refugees in American Prison” showed the suffering Cambodian people suffer from moving out of the communist regime after the Vietnam War to the United States to live a new life. The lives of Southeast Asians in the United States were not fair, and they were deported from the United States because of ICE. The government is not helping to improve the lives of immigrants, it is making their lives worse.

That this week I learned that if you’re a refugee in the United States of America you can still be deported. Also doing crime can very affect your impact of getting deported. That’s very cruel because on YouTube it shows the father leaving the family and being deported back to Cambodia. That family reunion is not going to happen and change how they live. Also, a question I have is why is he deported if he has a family that is American.

 

Refugee resettlement was designed to relocate people from Cambodia who survived the Pol Pot genocide to America, but once they came they were not given citizenship. Cambodians were chucked into already impoverished areas, into an alien society they knew nothing of and left to their own devices. They and their children often turned to crime having no other way to feed or house themselves. As a result, they are targeted by law enforcement and immigration agencies, minors tried as adults and given harsh sentences. Law enforcement and immigration agencies even started deporting many Southeast Asian Americans who grew up in America for crimes for which they had already served their time. Rather than try to address the lack of opportunity and resources for these immigrants, the government makes no effort to aid these people and even penalizes them through denying welfare if they are declared overearning. Groups came together to form advocacy organizations aimed at young Cambodians to help keep them off the streets and in school; they later expanded to help fight court cases in the justice system and immigration. Even though this helped a lot of people, the justice and immigration system had already destroyed the lives of many families that have already been through extreme trauma by targeting them in such ways. Many thoughts came to me while reading and watching this material. One major realization is that the Southeast Asian community is often left out of the immigration debate, they fade into obscurity and get lumped in with other Asians only to then be compared against the favored “model minority.”

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 .

I learned about refugee “resettlement,” criminalization and the impacts of immigration enforcement in SE Asian communities show how easily someone can turn their backs on you based on the influence of others. As shown in the reading by Yang “The Forgotten Asian Refugees Fed into the U.S. Prison System” ICE decided to deport lots of Cambodian immigrants back to Cambodia despite the fact that multiples of them have not been there in their life or may have escaped as babies/kids. My one takes away from this all is a prevalent message all across communities where they either get forcibly removed or are forced by ICE which is “trauma”. The separation of family or people from a place they are familiar with creates a trauma within them that takes years of healing just to get over and sometimes, it never even happens. Some of the feelings that came up for me were resentment that this happens, most of what I saw were minor crimes yet they get arrested for it, there should be some form of understanding that what was in the past is in the past. Especially in the case of Loeun Lun who was deported for a crime that he committed a long time ago but due to his status, was still deported anyway. Besides the feeling of resentment, I had a feeling of hope that this might change, and as of writing this it might due to the recent victory of Joe Biden in the elections. While he’s no Bernie Sanders, one can hope that he and Kamala will lead us to a better change than we were in these past four years.

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.

 

According to the readings “The Forgotten Asian Refugees Fed Into the U.S. Prison System” and “Unsettled” and the video of the Cambodian ex gang member being deported. A man named Phal Sok and is family fled Cambodia in the year 1979. In Cambodia people were being forced into execution, starvation, disease and forced labor. Do to Trump’s idiotic law many Cambodians have been deported by ICE, regardless of how long the have lived here. Being forced away from their families back to a country they have not been to at all, or haven’t been too a long time ago. Cambodia has had a civil war and a war with vietnam ann was under the rule of Khmer Rouge rule which ruined many lives. Cambodia is a poor country were it is hard to make a living and there are even gangs out there. Many deportees and refugees have lived in brutal conditions and even commited suicide. Cambodians were treated unfairly by our country’s poor and close minded handling of things. It is heartbreaking, having family members being sent miles away from you is melancholy.