LOWELL, Mass. (AP) — Asian American groups are objecting to the Trump administration's efforts to step up deportations of Cambodians, as dozens of refugees with criminal convictions are being ordered to report to federal officials next week for removal.
At least 20 people in California have been served notices to report to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to begin the deportation process, according to Ny Nourn, a San Francisco-based community advocate with the Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus. The state is home to the largest population of Cambodians in the U.S.
In Massachusetts, the state with the nation's second largest Cambodian community, at least 10 residents have received them, said Bethany Li, director of Greater Boston Legal Services' Asian Outreach Unit.
Cambodians living in Minnesota, Texas, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin have also been issued the orders, said Elaine Sanchez Wilson, a spokeswoman for the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center in Washington, D.C.
Asian American activists are planning demonstrations in San Francisco, Sacramento and Boston next week. They argue that many of those facing deportation served criminal sentences years and in some cases decades ago, when they were troubled young refugees struggling to adjust to a new country after their families fled Cambodia's brutal Khmer Rouge regime.
"Many of these people have served their time and rebuilt their lives," said Kevin Lam, an organizer with the Asian American Resource Workshop, which is helping organize Monday's protest in Boston. "They have families, careers and contribute to their communities."
The deportations have been happening since about 2002, when Cambodia agreed to begin repatriating refugees convicted of felony crimes in the U.S.
But they've risen sharply since President Donald Trump took office and imposed visa sanctions on Cambodia and a handful of other nations in order to compel them to speed up the process.
The result has been a roughly 280% increase, from 29 removals in federal fiscal year 2017 to 110 in federal fiscal year 2018, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data .
Through the current fiscal year, which ends Monday, 80 Cambodians have been removed, the agency told The Associated Press this week. There are nearly 1,800 Cambodians with final removal orders living in the country. The majority have criminal convictions but are on supervised release and not in detention, ICE said.
"ICE fully respects the Constitutional rights of all people to peacefully express their opinions," the agency said in response to the planned demonstrations. "That being said, ICE remains committed to performing its immigration enforcement mission consistent with federal law and agency policy."