PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — An undocumented Philadelphia man’s life began as a child of refugees, but now, in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he fears it will end as a homeless man in a country he doesn’t know.
Sereyrath Van, 45, is a man with no nation.
He has lived in the U.S. since he was 4 years old, but the government is attempting to deport him to Thailand or Cambodia. Van has been fighting it since 2021, and an immigration judge denied Van’s most recent appeal.
Van has never been to Cambodia. His parents fled Cambodia during the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s. Van was born in Thailand, where his parents were living in a refugee camp.
After the family moved to the U.S., several of his family members have obtained citizenship. But Van got into trouble when he was young. He has been convicted of dealing drugs twice. The first time stopped him from getting citizenship. The second time landed him in jail and then in the hands of ICE.
At his appeal hearing, Van’s attorney, David Bennion, said Thailand won’t take Van even if the U.S. deports him there. He says Van doesn’t qualify for naturalization in Thailand, despite being born there.
“The judge wrongly declared that he's a citizen of Thailand. The Thai government will not issue a travel document to him. He was the [child] of refugees living in a refugee camp,” Bennion said.
“Some courts have held that you can't just order a stateless person removed under that section of the law to a country that they're not a citizen of.”
That’s why Cambodia is their second choice. But even there, advocates say, he would never be a citizen. And Bennion says Van potentially faces torture in there.
Dr. Jennifer Zelnick, an anthropologist who studied the lives of deportees in Cambodia, testified that the Cambodian system makes it difficult for deportees like Van to obtain an ID without bribing government officials. Without an ID, he will likely be jobless and homeless.
And, of course, bribery comes with its own risks.
Bennion says Van should get asylum in the U.S. and plans to appeal.
There’s a non-governmental agency set up by the U.S. to help detainees get ID, jobs and homes in Cambodia, Zelnick said. It’s called Khmer Vulnerability Aid Organization, but she fears it will soon have to shut down. KVAO is funded largely by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
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“U.S. government now is saying, ‘We're going to stop the aid, totally violate the conditions. We're going to now start opening the pipeline of deportees to Cambodia.’ And they've been just sending people out as fast as they can,” Bennion said.
“The U.S. government—in particular the Trump administration …. Laws don't matter. International agreements don't matter. International relations don't matter. All that matters is upholding white supremacy.”
Van is currently being held at the Moshannon Detention Center in western Pennsylvania.