The number of Southeast Asian immigrants in Los Angeles and Orange counties, where deportation orders have been put on hold for years indefinitely, have been growing, and in some cases deported after appearing for regular check-in at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.
Over the past few months, many Cambodia, Laos and Vietnamese migrants are said to have now been in effect as the Trump administration is trying to increase the number of deportations.
Targeted immigrants are generally those convicted of a crime after their arrival in the United States and can qualify for deportation after being released from prison or prison. In most cases, the ice did not last with deportation because migrants lived long enough that their country no longer recognized them as citizens, or because their home countries do not easily issue repatriation documents, as in Laos.
Instead, under long-standing policies, these immigrants are allowed to stay in the US with regular check-in with ice agents to show that they are working and staying out of trouble. Check-in usually starts every month, but visits annually over time.
According to the Asian Legal Caucus, as of 2024, around 15,100 Cambodians, Laos and Vietnamese citizens living in this situation across the United States were living there.
“People are very concerned about their check-in. They are committed to adhering to reporting requirements and want to continue to adhere to the way they have done over the years, but they are also afraid to report based on what they see in the news.”
Connie Chung Joe, the Asian American CEO who advances Southern California Judge, said last month that at least 17 community members in Los Angeles and Orange Counties were only detained or deported, and her organization recognized at least 17 community members and Orange County community members.
“These are people who have been here for decades,” Jung Jo said. “It’s just breaking the community and their families apart.”
Orange County has the largest diaspora of Vietnamese people outside their home country, many of whom are refugees who fled the fall of Saigon. The county’s small Saigon is home to over 100,000 Vietnamese-Americans. Additionally, tens of thousands of Cambodians and Laos have settled in the Los Angeles area, according to the Pew Research Centre.
Many Southeast Asian refugees have been handed over as children and not gained enough support as everything dealt with the upheaval, said Laura Urias, program director at the Immigration Defenders Law Centre. Some fell into the gang because they struggled to assimilate, and that’s when they got caught up in the criminal system.
They may have gotten into trouble like the young people, but many people served their time, got jobs and continued to take root, Urias said.
In one instance, Cambodian immigrants took part in his ice check-in and were ordered to produce flight tickets to Cambodia within 60 days, she said. Urias said that at this time, the centre’s clients have not been deported, but have heard of people without legal representatives who were deported after check-in.
“It’s definitely something we’ve never seen before,” Urias said. “That coincides with the overall message this administration has come in. It is threatening to expel as many people as possible.”
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not respond to a list of questions from the era about the reasons behind policy changes and whether immigrants would accept them.
Urias said he suspects that the Trump administration’s looming tariff threat has led some countries to cooperate and approve.
Richard Wilner said his company, Wilner & O’Reilly, in Orange, saw an increase in consultation requests from families of detained immigrants. His company will not accept clients convicted of serious crimes such as sex crimes and murder.
“In the last two weeks, we’ve received more calls than we’ve had over the last 15 years because people have been arrested,” he said.
He added that he couldn’t understand why immigrants who had delayed deportation orders were targeted for removal rather than others.
“These are people who have deportation orders, some of them have led amazing lives, starting families, businesses, good people. “I don’t know what the parameters are, because not everyone is being snatched away at check-in.”
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