PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A Philadelphia man and his attorney say U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is attempting to deport him to a country where he says he’s never been.
Sereyrath Van, the son of Southeast Asian refugees, walked into the ICE field office on North Eighth Street, knowing he might not come out a free man again. Dozens of advocates and Southeast Asian community leaders gathered outside the office to protest his “check-in” with ICE agents.
Van, also known as “One” or “One-eye,” was recently released from prison following a drug conviction. While incarcerated, a judge ordered his deportation to Thailand, but Van and his attorney, David Bennion, say the government is trying to send him to Cambodia.
“One was not born in Cambodia. He was born in Thailand. He's never been to Cambodia,” Bennion said. “It’s something shady for sure.”
Van came to the United States as a 4-year-old in 1984 with his parents, who fled the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. They spent a few years in Thailand before settling in the U.S.
Advocates say Van, a mechanic by trade, grew up in the city’s tough, underserved Southeast Asian neighborhoods. He served three years in prison on drug charges. “I did my time. I came out. I'm on parole,” he said.
Bennion took up Van’s case after learning the paperwork on his deportation order was changed.
“Any reference to Thailand was whited out, and it only left Cambodia in the alternative,” he said. “That raised some red flags right there, because why is ICE tampering with a document issued by a different department, which is the immigration court?”
Bennion and Van believe ICE changed the order because the agency has been unable to arrange deportation to Thailand.
“The judge found no connection for me to Cambodia. So that's why the judge switched it and put Thailand,” said Van.
Van has applied for a visa, which he and his attorney hope will keep him in the U.S.
Officials from ICE say they are prohibited by law from commenting on the case.