#AllForONE Petition - Stop Sereyrath "One" Van's Deportation!
Patrick Lechleitner (Acting Director of ICE) and David O'Neill (Deputy Field Office Director of the Philadelphia ICE Field Office)
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During an unexpected ICE check-in on July 9, 2024, Sereyrath "One" Van received a 14-day notice of his final deportation by ICE. One now has one month before his next scheduled ICE check-in, where we anticipate he will likely be detained and deported to Cambodia. However, as soon as July 23, 2024, ICE can detain and deport One before his next check-in.
One was born in Thailand, where his parents sought refuge from the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia during the aftermath of the Wars in Southeast Asia. In 1984, his family resettled in the United States when One was four years old. This year in January, One was released to our community from his incarceration in state prison for a drug conviction and from a direct ICE transfer to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center ICE detention center.
Over the past 7 months, One has been trying to turn a new leaf in his life by applying the lessons from his incarceration, especially his appreciation of his freedom to be with his friends, family, and community after 5 years of incarceration. One has also been pursuing his dreams and passion for giving back to the Southeast Asian community in Philadelphia and joining VietLead's fight against Southeast Asian deportation. However, with an ICE deportation order looming over his head since his release, One has remained weary and fearful of the future. Now, he is under the direct threat of his imminent deportation to a country where he was never born, where he has never stepped foot, where from his family left as refugees 44 years ago.
One views his own life as the greatest opportunity of all, especially with his experience as a premature newborn in Thailand, where his parents sought refuge. He credits the medical infrastructure in Thailand for his opportunity to live. He has never stepped foot in Cambodia: the country that ICE is attempting to deport him to. In addition to his deportation being an injustice due to One's being a refugee, his deportation to Cambodia is unjust because he has never had Cambodian citizenship. We have reason to believe that ICE has engaged in fraudulent practices to convince the Cambodian government to issue travel documents and accept One’s deportation, even though there is no documentation of One’s birth and citizenship in the country.
For 40 years, One has called Philadelphia his home. His stories from growing up in the city as a refugee youth reflect the violent conditions of refugee resettlement our community knows all too well: severe language barriers, intense bullying, racism, deep poverty, the school-to-prison pipeline, and more. Throughout his entire life, One has been denied opportunity after opportunity because the violent conditions of refugee resettlement in the United States. With every moment of denial and every mistake he’s made, One has tried to make the best of his situation. Now, he is finally ready to give to our community, to join our movement to free our community and be #ONEForAll.
One’s story is all of our stories. One’s dreams are all of our dreams. We know that One deserves the opportunity to turn his life around and give back to our community, but we must stop ICE from taking away that opportunity from him.
One says, "Freedom is me being allowed to live any dream that I wanna live. Me being able to make decisions I make in life without having to worry about oppression, with not having to worry about bigotry, with not having to worry about racism. Everything I make, my decision is based on love, caring for somebody else, and caring about what's around me, and caring about loved ones. Every decision I make is based on that and not based on what’s wrong with this world. That’s freedom."
Visit and share the #AllForONE Action Toolkit where you can read One's full story and take action to stop his deportation!
#AllForONE Action Toolkit: https://bit.ly/allforONE-toolkit (case sensitive)
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To:
Patrick Lechleitner (Acting Director of ICE) and David O'Neill (Deputy Field Office Director of the Philadelphia ICE Field Office)
From:
[Your Name]
We demand that ICE stops the detention and deportation of 40-year Philadelphia resident Sereyrath Van who, on July 9, 2024, received a 14-day notice of his planned detention and deportation on or before his next scheduled ICE check-in on August 15, 2024.
Mr. Van was born in a hospital in Thailand, where his parents sought refuge in the nearby Khao-I-Dang refugee camp after escaping the Khmer Rouge genocide in the aftermath of the Vietnam War in Cambodia. When he was 4 years old, Mr. Van and his family resettled in the United States, facing deep poverty, racism, intense bullying, the school-to-prison pipeline, and more familiar violent conditions of Southeast Asian refugee resettlement in the United States. Mr. Van's deportation reflects an ongoing cycle of violence that many Southeast Asian refugee families continue to face: the separation of families and communities first by war, and now through deportation.
In addition to his deportation being an injustice due to his being a refugee, Mr. Van's deportation to Cambodia is unjust because he has never had Cambodian citizenship. While in immigration court, ICE could not provide evidence that One was a citizen of Cambodia, since he wasn't born there and never had a Cambodian passport or birth certificate. The immigration judge designated Thailand as the primary country for deportation, with Cambodia as an alternative. But in Mr. Van's deportation packet, ICE had erased the reference to Thailand from the deportation order, leaving only Cambodia. This raises concerns that ICE is tampering with documentation the agency is providing to foreign consulates in order to obtain the travel documents necessary to deport people. This is consistent with ICE’s longstanding practice of deporting stateless people and even U.S. citizens to countries they have never been to.
Stop Sereyrath's planned detention and deportation, so that he may receive a true opportunity to turn his life around and make his dreams come true: to apply the lessons he learned from his incarceration in PA state prison and to give back to his community in Philadelphia. The Southeast Asian community and allies in Philadelphia and nationally stand firmly with Sereyrath, and we demand his freedom. His story reflects the stories and experiences of our entire community. If Sereyrath is deported, his absence would be deeply felt not only by his close friends and family but also throughout our entire community in Philadelphia and nationally.