According to the Immigration Lawyer and Initiative Team, a growing number of Southeast Asian immigrants in Los Angeles and Orange County have been detained for years, with their deportation orders for years and in some cases, deported after routine inspections by U.S. immigration and customs law enforcement.
In recent months, many Cambodian, Laos and Vietnamese immigrants have been told that deportation orders that have now lasted for decades (which already exist in some cases) as the Trump administration seeks to increase the number of deportations.
The targeted immigrants are usually people convicted upon arrival in the United States, making them eligible for deportation after release from prison or prison. In most cases, ICEs have never been deported because immigrants have lived in the United States for long enough that their home country no longer recognizes it as a citizen, or like Laos, the home country is not prone to issuing repatriation documents.
Instead, these immigrants are allowed to stay in the United States under long-term policies, provided they frequently check with ICE agents to show that they are working and avoiding trouble. Check-in usually starts monthly, but over time, annual visits.
According to the Asian Legal Caucus, as of 2024, there were about 15,100 Cambodians, Laos and Vietnamese nationals living in the United States, in this case, according to the Asian Legal Caucus.
“People are very worried about their verification. They are committed to complying with their reporting requirements and want to continue to comply with their reports as they have been for years, but they are also afraid to report based on what they see in the news.”
Connie Chung Joe, the CEO of the Asian-American promoted to Southern California judge, said her organization had realized last month that at least 17 community members in Los Angeles and Orange County attended booked occupancy facilities and were only detained or deported.
“These guys have been here for decades,” Chung Joe said. “It just broke the division between the community and its family.”
Orange County is home to the largest expatriates in Vietnam outside its home country, many of whom have fled Saigon. The county’s Saigon has over 100,000 Vietnamese people. In addition, thousands of Cambodians and Laos settled in the Los Angeles area, according to the Pew Research Center.
Laura Urias, program director of the Immigration Defenders Law Center, said many Southeast Asian refugees were brought to their childhood and did not receive enough support. Some people get stuck with gangs when they try to assimilate, and that’s when they get stuck in the criminal system.
Urias said that while they may be in trouble, many people took the time to continue finding jobs and take root.
In one example, a Cambodian immigrant attended the check-in on the ice and ordered a plane ticket to be produced within 60 days, she said. Urias said none of the center’s clients were deported at this time, but she heard that people without legal representatives were deported after signing in.
“It’s definitely something we’ve never really seen before,” Urias said. “It matches the overall message that this administration has produced – threatening to expel as many people as possible.”
The Department of Homeland Security, which is in charge of ICE, did not answer a list of questions about the reasons behind policy shifts in the New York era and whether immigration will accept it.
Urias said she suspected the Trump administration’s looming tariff threat has made some countries more willing to cooperate and accept those deported.
Richard Wilner said his company, Wilner & O’Reilly, is based in Orange, has seen an increase in consultation requests from detained immigrant families. His company does not accept clients convicted of serious crimes such as sex crimes and murder.
“In the past two weeks, I’ve received calls from the past 15 years or more because people have been arrested,” he said.
He added that he couldn’t figure out why some immigrants with delayed deportation orders targeted dismissal rather than others.
“These people are people with great deportation orders, some of them continue to live a brilliant life, start families, businesses, good people. Others continue to re-offend,” he said. “I don’t know what the parameters are because not everyone is robbed at check-in.”
