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Following a slow-down in deportations due to the pandemic, civil rights organizations have been issuing alerts that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement may begin arresting Cambodian community members in mid-February.

Attorney Anoop Prasad, of Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus, a civil rights nonprofit, said on Monday that advocates’ prediction is based on analyzing annual patterns in deportations and written notices of the deportations, the latter of which is a more precise indicator. According to Prasad, immigrants are typically returned to their native country in large charter flights whenever someone receives a notice.

“So it’s never been just one person,” Prasad said.

So far, Prasad said that at least one Cambodian resident has received a written notice last week.

When asked if ICE planned to deport Cambodians in Long Beach this month, ICE spokeswoman Mary Houtmann could not confirm any planned deportations in Long Beach.

“Due to operational security, we generally are not able to discuss details of removal operations until they are complete,” Houtmann said in an email.

“ICE focuses its civil immigration enforcement priorities on the apprehension and removal of noncitizens who pose a threat to our national security, public safety and border security,” Houtmann added.

In the past, activists say they have heard testimonies of immigrants asked to come into ICE offices for their regular check-in without being notified that they would be detained. In 2017, Long Beach resident Kim “Rickie” Nak Chhoeun met that fate, which later led to a class-action lawsuit that challenged raids and arrests of Cambodian refugees. The week before Nak Chhoeun was detained, his mother’s neighbor’s son was detained, following rumors of Cambodian deportations.

Maribel Cruz, spokeswoman for the Long Beach Immigrant Rights Coalition, said the community, due to “lack of trust,” is skeptical about claims by ICE that the agency is only targeting people with criminal records.

As a result, “we try to navigate these waters out of an abundance of precaution just in case,” Cruz said.

In this file photo, event organizers display a large, cardboard message amid national and local deportations during the 13th annual Yellow Lounge inside the Roosevelt Elementary School Auditorium on Aug. 3, 2019. Photo by Crystal Niebla.

While ICE did not confirm grouped deportations or raids in Long Beach, Cruz said that tips about ICE activity have been helpful in the past. Organizations like LBIRC operate a rapid response network, for instance, which monitors ICE activity related to immigrant detentions and can connect individuals with help to legal representation via the Long Beach Justice Fund. (In Long Beach, the rapid response hotline can be reached at 562-269-1083.)

During the pandemic, ICE decreased its detained population to allow for social distancing and temporarily focused on immigrants with criminal records and public safety threats, according to the agency’s website.

When serving for Khmer Girls in Action several years ago, Suely Saro, now Long Beach’s first Cambodian American councilmember, helped connect immigrants to legal help surrounding deportation orders, some of which disrupted the lives of local families.

“This has been an issue that has impacted the community for over a decade, so absolutely it’s still a concerning issue, and people are upset that this is still happening.”

Since the Obama administration, the U.S. has seen an increase in overall deportations.

Within the past several years, Cambodia and the U.S. negotiated to resume deportations after Cambodia had stopped accepting the return of Cambodian immigrants and the U.S. responded with visa sanctions.

Prasad said that there was hope that the Biden administration would lift the sanctions and renegotiate “a more humane agreement.” In the meantime, civil rights groups will continue to advocate a new agreement, he added.

Between fiscal years 2018 and 2020, more than 222 Cambodians were removed by ICE, according to the agency’s statistics. The most recent stats from fiscal years 2021 up until 2022, were not readily available by press time.

Prasad said he believes any deportation operations are “still very early in the cycle.”

“I think we’ll probably have a better sense of what we’re looking at and who’s impacted…in a week or so,” he said.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with a comment from Councilwoman Suley Saro during an interview with the Post.

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