Cambodian genocide survivor detained by I.C.E in U.S.A
Image: San Croucher and her three daughters, Sithy Yi, Sithea San and Jennifer Diep at Kamput Refugee Camp, Thailand, in 1981. Photo was taken after the family fled genocide in Cambodia. Photo: Sithea San
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US media is reporting that a survivor of the Cambodian genocide, who escaped to the United States in 1981, has been detained by I.C.E – despite a pending visa application.
Laist News reports that Sithy Yi fled genocide in Cambodia and came to the U.S. as a refugee in 1981.
She was detained earlier this month at a regular immigration check-in in Santa Ana, and her lawyer, Kim Luu-Ng, says Yi is being held unlawfully at the Adelanto detention center.
Luu-Ng said Yi was ordered by an immigration court to be removed from the country in 2016, but her removal was withheld out of concerns of harm if she returned to Cambodia.
Yi’s sister, Sithea San said her family came to the U.S. in 1981, sponsored by her uncle.
They arrived in California with just $10.
Yi’s mother and sisters had all become U.S. citizens by 1990, San told LAist, but Yi’s path to legal residency was more complicated, due to a medical condition that prevented her attending school.
Laist News reports that Yi’s detention on Jan. 8 came as a complete surprise.
According to her sister, Sithea San, she had helped the government when she came forward as a victim and always went to her monthly check-ins with ICE.
“ She complied with every single thing that the government asked her to do,” San told LAist.
In November, two months before her detention, Luu-Ng and San went with Yi for her check-in with ICE. Luu-Ng said they were concerned at that time that Yi could be detained because they saw reports of other people being taken from their families during check-ins.
After discussing Yi’s case with Luu-Ng, the immigration officials at the Santa Ana facility said she would need to start wearing an ankle monitor, but she was free to go home.
Luu-Ng recalled one official telling her that as long as Yi didn’t tamper with the ankle monitor or violate any conditions of her electronic monitoring, ICE would not detain her.
“We went out and everyone was in tears, relieved,” Luu-Ng said.
Yi continued to check in, and Luu-Ng thought she would be fine because she was following ICE’s instructions.
The next two months Yi went to her check-ins without a lawyer, but her sister still came along.
At her January check-in, San said they saw people crying in the waiting area.
She said Yi approached them and tried to comfort them.
Then after waiting about an hour, ICE called Yi into a back room, alone.
Yi can’t read in English, San said, and sometimes she struggles to understand when people talk to her.
San wanted to accompany her sister to be sure she understood any questions she might be asked.
Instead, she was stopped at the door.
“ And then I heard the sound . . . the handcuffs,” San said. “And that moment I feel like, am I dreaming? Is this real?”
San said she told the ICE agents that her sister had CAT protections and a pending U visa application, which she showed them. She said they told her it didn’t matter.
When San was later able to visit her sister in detention, she said Yi told her the ICE agents tried to coerce her to sign legal documents she couldn’t understand and threatened that things would get worse for her if she refused.
She said Yi didn’t sign the documents.
When San visited her sister at the Adelanto detention center on Jan. 18, Yi said she’d just had a nightmare, with scenes from her time under the oppression of the Khmer Rouge.
She told San being detained reminds her of those times, and she tries to keep her mind on other things.
“Remember during the Khmer Rouge,” San told Yi. “You know what we do. We need to have hope.”
Yi told her sister she had been trying to fill her time by teaching the other detainees how to do traditional Cambodian dances.
“How do you do it? How do you get the music?” San recalled asking Yi.
“She said she just sings.”
Source: Cambodian genocide survivor detained by ICE
