Looking for a ‘second chance’: Dozens attend deportation forum in Tacoma

TACOMA, Wash. – Rithy Yin lives in constant fear.

“Knowing you could be ripped from your family at any time is a lot,” Yin explained. “It takes a toll on you.”

Yin was one of dozens of people who turned out for a “Deportation Awareness Forum” in Tacoma.

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He is also one of eight Cambodian-American men in Washington state who activists say are facing immediate deportation to Cambodia for crimes committed years ago.

“It’s stressful,” Yin added. “I try to be as positive as I can, busy as I can, but you never what’s going to happen.”

He was 2 years old when he came to the country as a refugee, fleeing the genocide and violence during the Khmer Rouge regime.

At 18, he committed an armed robbery, for which he served 10 years in prison.

Now, 36 years old, Yin says he has turned his life around.

“I’ve owned up to it,” Yin said. “I’m not trying to justify it. I was in the wrong, trying to right my wrong and just looking for a second chance.”

Thy Son has also lived with a similar uncertainty weighing on her shoulders for the last few years.

Her husband, the father of her two young children, is facing deportation for drug offenses he committed as a teenager.

He was just 6 months old when he came to the U.S.

“It hurts, and to know that my kids might grow up to not have a father and I don’t want that to happen,” Son said.

Son’s aunt, Vanna Sing, organized the forum to bring education and hope to these families under the threat of separation.

She also has two more family members facing the same fate.

“There is hope,” Sing explained. “And if we come together, we can learn how to do it and do what we need to do.”

Advocates are calling on lawmakers to help.

They believe the U.S. government must bear some responsibility for its bombings of Cambodia during the Vietnam War, which contributed to the political instability that allowed the Khmer Rouge to come into power.

“I do feel betrayed because they accepted us with open arms and raised us after everything that went on,” Yin said. “And I make a mistake and I feel like they turned their back on me.”