Organization
1Love Cambodia (Long Beach spin-off)
1Love Cambodia was a volunteer-led movement of Cambodian deportees that campaigned for their right to return to the United States.[1][2] It was active from 2015 to 2018 and opposed the deportation of Khmer refugees from the United States to Cambodia.[1] The group began as a spin-off of the 1Love Movement, a Philadelphia group working to stop deportations to Cambodia.[2]
History
Sophea Phea, who had been deported from Long Beach in 2011, was a co-founder and co-director. She and her friend Chandara Tep were core members.[1][2] Phea later explained why the work had to happen in Cambodia too: "I thought that the Cambodian government needed to know that deportations are not right, because if nobody said anything, then they'll think it's OK."[2]
The group studied the 2002 repatriation agreement between Cambodia and the United States and drafted proposed revisions. Support came from the expatriate community in Phnom Penh and from advocates in the United States.[2] Its members lobbied against Cambodia's agreement to accept deportations, spread the message that separating families is inhumane, and joined other organizations in the #Right2Return campaign for the right to come back to the United States after deportation.[3]
In 2016 the group won a meeting with Cambodian officials from several ministries, where Phea and other deportees testified.[2] The next year, Cambodian officials announced that they would stop accepting deportations from the United States, but the pause was short-lived.[2] In 2018 Sophea Hang, a member of the 1Love Cambodia core, said the deportation agreement was "getting worse under this administration," and the group collected donations for the immediate needs of deportees in Cambodia.[4]
Phea credits the group's advocacy with opening the way to reuniting families and with easing the resettlement of deportees in Cambodia.[3] Her own U.S. permanent residency was restored, and she returned to Long Beach in 2022.[1]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Tiny Toones, Board of directors
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 LAist, Deported 11 years ago, Cambodian woman gets rare chance to return home to Long Beach (September 2022)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Asian Law Caucus, Teacher and advocate Sophea Phea returns home from deportation after 11 years (August 2022)
- ↑ Race Files, On 50th anniversary of MLK assassination, ICE deports Khmer refugees to Cambodia (April 2018)