“I didn’t get any notice. Basically I just got a phone call telling me to check in because once you’re released from your jail sentence, you got your final order of removal. They just cuffed me and told me that I’m going to Cambodia. My heart dropped, and I didn’t know what to say,” said Kalvin Heng, who grew up in the US and was deported to Cambodia in 2004.

Heng is not alone. 43 Cambodians were deported by the US to Phnom Penh at the start of April, the largest batch yet under a 2002 bilateral agreement, a controversial deal that enables the US to expel legal residents who have criminal records and who have not become US citizens. 

Over the past year, US authorities have ramped up raids under US President Trump whose administration has taken a hardline stance on expelling criminals and undocumented migrants. “[I left behind] my whole family, my parents, my siblings, my whole life as a matter of fact. I grew up in the US as an American, went to college, started working a full-time job. It just turned my life around. I tried to grow up and become a responsible adult, but I didn’t get the chance to do that,” added Heng. 

As children of refugees who fled camps in Thailand to escape the genocidal Khmer Rouge that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, many of the returnees have never lived in Cambodia. More than 500 other Cambodians have already been repatriated since 2002. 

“The real question here is about morality,” said current affairs commentator Einar Tangen. “The US is a nation of immigrants. Donald Trump’s own grandfather was involved, reportedly, in some very similar activities. This is not a nation that came with people who had all the good things going for them.”

“This thing [the deportation] continues to go on, unfortunately. It’s the ugly side of democracy. Hopefully, it will pass soon,” Tangen added. However, that does not seem to be the case. As of December of last year, there were over 1,900 Cambodian nationals residing in the US with final orders of removal. “As far as policy changes in the Trump administration, you can’t even see the future where that’s going,” Heng said. “Their policies may change or may not change; our life keeps moving forward. Keep hope for life.”