Cambodians Fear Possible Deportation

Chanphirun Meanowuth Min lost his entire family to genocide shortly after the Communist takeover. Now the 45-year-old San Gabriel Valley resident fears that a Los Angeles immigration judge today will order him deported to the nation he fled.

Until recently, most Cambodians in the United States -- including an estimated 50,000 in Southern California -- were immune to deportation because many of them fled Cambodia as refugees and the Cambodian government had refused to accept them back as nationals.

That changed last year as the result of a new repatriation agreement between the United States and Cambodia. As a result, Min and roughly 1,400 other Cambodians now face possible deportation if they have been convicted of aggravated felonies -- in Min's case, conspiracy to commit Medi-Cal fraud.

Another 4,500 Vietnamese and 2,000 Laotians could find themselves in similar straits as the United States seeks to hammer out repatriation agreements with Vietnam and Laos.

In Southern California, home to the nation's largest Cambodian community, many of the potential deportees say they have no ties to their nominal native land. Some were born in refugee camps in Thailand. Others claim to be Laotians and say their parents may have registered them as Cambodians to gain faster access to the United States in the years after the Vietnam War.

"I have never set foot in Cambodia. If I go there, I will die," said one 22-year-old man who asked that only his first name, Jerry, be used to avoid retaliation by immigration officials.

Government officials defend the new agreement, saying it was negotiated as a way to "level the playing field." Noncitizens from other countries who are convicted of crimes are routinely required to leave the country -- 71,000 were deported last year, most to Mexico.

"It's important for people to understand this is nothing targeted at Cambodians," said one official, adding that people who are convicted of crimes lose their protected status as refugees.

Moreover, officials note, all of the people being threatened with deportation have been convicted of what the law defines as aggravated felonies.