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Lundy Khoy
“Growing up, I didn’t feel any different from my brother and sister who were born in the US. I knew I was born in a refugee camp and my birth certificate looked different from theirs, but I didn’t feel like I was ‘less American.’ I've lived here all of my life. I heard stories through my parents that we were so blessed to be living in this wonderful country."
“What I got charged with was with ecstasy after a night of partying. At the time, I was ashamed of it and I didn’t want my parents to find out that I was taking drugs. So I made up this whole story that I was just selling them that made everything worse for me. Ever since then, I’ve been dealing with this conviction – which led to my deportation case. When I was 23 years old, immigration picked me up and took me away for 9 months to go through deportation proceedings – and ever since then I’ve been living under that limbo. I have a final order of removal, which means that if they were to obtain a travel document, they could deport me to Cambodia.
“I feel awful because I made this mistake, this stupid, dumb mistake because I was so dumb back then – young, dumb, naïve, inexperienced – and now I have to pay the price for that. I thought I paid the price already, I was in jail for 3 months, was released on probation, and then I changed my life around. I started work and I started school. I learned my lesson but that’s not enough. Now they’re like, we want to deport you. How is that even fair? I’m not a threat to the community, I’m not doing anything to be a threat to the community or to myself. This is a home to me and it’s not just affecting me, but it’s affecting the people that are in my life – my mom, my dad, my brother and sister – it’s just traumatic for all of us.
“When I went in front of the judge and we pleaded and shared our story, he didn’t even look at me. I found out later that the judge didn’t even have the power to make the decision. Because my type of criminal conviction was considered an aggravated felony, which by law, meant automatic removal. So what was even the point of having to be in front of the judge and going through the proceeding? He couldn’t even make the decision, because the decision was already made. Where’s the judicial discretion?
“It’s not just the person you’re deporting, but their family – their children, their spouses – my family relies on me. Can’t imagine what will happen to us if I was sent to a country I’ve never been to before. My place is here with my family and I believe I have every right to be here. I’ve changed. I made a really poor decision and I’m really sorry that I did that. I believe I paid for my crime, but I don’t think that I should continue to have to go through this type of suffering and living in this type of fear for the rest of my life.
“Even advocating for this, talking to the leaders of the country, nothing’s been done. I’ve been trying to fight this since 2012 and nothing has been done to prevent this from happening. To send me back to somewhere I’ve never been before, it’s punishment for life.
“If you’re undocumented, you don’t want to give your information freely away in fear that they [the government] could use that against you later. I don’t blame them for having that fear.
“I have to share this story, because...I don’t want this to go away. The fight isn’t just for myself and for those that are living in shadow, but for their family and my family. I have a responsibility to them.
I have a responsibility to my son. I don’t want him growing up thinking that I gave up on this, that I didn’t fight hard enough. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if he thought that I gave up. I want him to grow up saying that it’s okay to have courage to fight for what you believe in. I want him to know that sometimes you have to speak up.
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