Bid to end US deportations

[geovalin]

The government has decided to address the longstanding problem of Cambodians being deported from the US, with the Foreign Ministry saying yesterday that they have already submitted a request to the US to stop all deportations of its citizens until a new agreement is negotiated.  Both local residents and Cambodians in the US have long criticized the US policy of deporting Cambodians convicted of crimes and dumping them back in the kingdom, regardless of their knowledge or connection to the country.
 

In 1996, new federal laws drastically expanded the scope of deportable offenses in the US. Under the new laws, any noncitizen sentenced to one year in jail or more was subject to deportation.  It was not until a 2002 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Cambodian and American governments that deportations started. Cambodian-Americans and legal Cambodian residents with criminal records suddenly found themselves being given deportation orders.
 

The US government pressured its Cambodian counterparts to sign the agreement by threatening to limit the number of visas issued in the future to Cambodian citizens, according to University of San Francisco Immigration Law Professor Bill Hing.  However, as an MoU, the agreement went into effect without the need for legislative approval and can therefore be undone through an agreement between the two countries.
 

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