Indeed, some Cambodians on the deportation list have been convicted of murder. Many, however, committed nonviolent offenses that were not classified as aggravated felonies until a strict immigration reform bill was passed in 1996. The bill enlarged the definition of an aggravated felony and sharply curtailed the discretion of immigration judges.
Congress has been considering legislation that would once again allow the cancellation of deportation orders for humanitarian reasons, such as keeping families intact. In the current atmosphere of concern for security, however, such measures face considerable opposition.
Him Chhim of the Cambodian Assn. of America in Long Beach said his organization is working with a dozen cases.
One father of two received his deportation orders after being convicted of child endangerment for driving drunk with his children in the car. Another was convicted of possessing marijuana and cocaine, which Chhim said the man used as "self-medication" to calm his continued nightmares stemming from the Cambodian holocaust.
Both men, he said, have paid their dues to society, gone through treatment programs for substance abuse and are needed here by their families.
"I don't think they're a danger to society," Chhim said. "I understand [U.S. officials] want to protect the country, but these 1,400 Cambodians came as refugees and we promised to help them."
A study of potential Cambodian deportees by the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center found that half were family breadwinners and a third had American-born children. On average, the deportees arrived in the United States at age 9, had been here for 20 years and spoke little or no Khmer, the Cambodian language.
Jerry says his family was imprisoned for three years in a concentration camp during the years of terror after Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot took over Cambodia in 1975. Widely accepted estimates blame the Khmer Rouge rule for taking the lives of more than 1 million Cambodians through executions, torture and starvation.
In 1979, Jerry's family escaped to a refugee camp in Thailand, where he was born. He said he grew up on the streets of Long Beach with little parental guidance and no treatment for the trauma his family suffered in Cambodia -- including the brutal murders of his aunt and other relatives.
"They just chopped her head off," he said. "We never talk about it."
