Leaving Everything Behind
In one story told by Ho Beua, he was only a child when he immigrated and came for political reasons. Since he was escaping from a warfare environment, Ho thought he was a refugee when he arrived.
But when Beua came as a refugee, he didn’t seek citizenship in order to become legal. Instead, he chose to live his life as an illegal immigrant. Furthermore, with his status being illegal, any crime that he did would result in deportation for punishment. Regardless of how long Ho stayed in the US, he would still be deported to Cambodia. Since left his country so early, he did not know anyone there anymore and he
now would also be leaving behind his fiancée and three kids.
This goes to show that even if people come over to the US for a good reason, this will not guarantee them the safety of US citizenship. With that in mind,refugees who commit a crime, will be automatically be deported to their home country, and even those who come to escape
war conditions or to live a better life, may not be able to become
citizens.
So Ho is one of the many refugees who face the dilemma of deportation and the label of illegal immigrant. He has done nothing wrong, but his lack of knowledge for immigration law may mean losing everythng he has all over again.
Source:
Turnbull, Lornet. "1500 Cambodian refugees face deportation for crimes." Seattletimes. 2004. 20 Jul 2006 <http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/
web/vortex/display?slug=cambodia17m&date=20040917&query=illegal+asian+
immigrants>.
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