“Deporting
Cambodian Refugees: Youth Activism, State Reform, and Imperial Statecraft”
Soo ah Kwon
The central focus of this article
that we read is as the title reads, the deportation of Cambodian refugees. Soo
ah Kwon chronicles the efforts and struggles that AYPAL, an Asian youth organization,
faced in their fight against repealing IIRIRA. The issue of Cambodian deportation
came about when the brother of an AYPAL member faced deportation. Boran was
detained and faced deportation even after serving a sentence for a crime he had
committed as a young man. In essence deportation is described and implied as
almost a ‘double-jeopardy’ as in many of these cases even after serving time in
prison, they would be detained by the INS (the Immigration and Naturalization
Service), and in many cases after prolonged detainment, they are deported and
sent back to a country that they are actually strangers to.
Soo ah Kwon also points to the
limitations of the youth and the “limits
of a Liberal Democracy.” While we often encourage the youth to be proactive
within the political sphere, and paint them as the future leaders and citizens
of our society, in the case of AYPAL not much was done despite their efforts.
In hoping to meet with their local congresswoman they received only the aide in
her place not once, but twice. Furthermore it took another bill to be raised
for the congresswoman to truly even acknowledge the issue at hand. Dealing with
this bureaucracy sheds light to the youth and many citizens in general that
although we may hope to repeal laws and create new ones, that sometimes the
system is itself in need of change. There is the common motif that justice
takes time. Ultimately despite the many efforts and press conference, even
getting the bill up into public consciousness much less through national
legislature was a struggle and uphill battle.
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