By Sunita Sohrabji
American Community Media
A survivor of child abuse, imprisonment and torture in Cambodia is now facing deportation, 44 years after she fled to the US.
Sithy Yi is shown participating in a Cambodian street festival. (Photo courtesy of Sithy Yi’s family)
A Southern California Cambodian grandmother, who has lived in the U.S. for 44 years, was arrested by ICE during a routine immigration check-in and now faces imminent deportation.
Sithy Yi was detained by ICE on Jan. 8. The 59-year-old grandmother of eight is currently in detention at the ICE processing center in Adelanto, California. She is technically protected by the UN Convention Against Torture (UNCAT) from being deported back to Cambodia, where she was tortured and abused as a child, said her attorney, Kim Luu-Ng of the Reeves Immigration Law Group.
But the Trump Administration has been circumventing UNCAT by deporting people to another country—usually Central America or the African continent—which could eventually deport them back to their country of birth. “In Cambodia, Ms. Yi would have absolutely zero protection. No lawyer would protect her because Cambodia continues to be a very corrupt dictatorship,” Luu-Ng told American Community Media (ACoM) in a Jan. 27 interview.
Escaping genocide
Sithea San, Sithy’s sister said in a statement, “My sister and I escaped death together during the genocide and rebuilt our lives here. Now she is detained, and I cannot protect her. She is scared, depressed, and does not understand why this is happening after she cooperated with the police. I am anxious and stressed every day.”
Sithy Yi, (center with dog) and her family. (Photo courtesy of Sithy Yi’s family)
Child imprisonment
Yi immigrated to the U.S. in 1981 as a refugee. Luu-Ng said she was abused as a child by the Khmer Rouge, the communist regime that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. The government is believed to have killed between 1.5 and 2 million Cambodians during that time.
“Ms. Yi was detained and imprisoned by the Khmer Rouge. She could not go to school. She was deprived of an education and subject to slave labor. Sithy was tortured on almost a daily basis. She has burn scars on her body,” Luu-Ng stated.
If she is returned to Cambodia, Yi will likely be killed, said Luu-Ng. She noted that her client was abused in the U.S. by a man who now holds a high position in the Cambodian government.
Attorney Kim Luu-Ng. (Courtesy photo)
Domestic violence
“He was convicted of abusing her and he was deported. Then he joined the Cambodian government, climbed up the ladder and is in a position of power. He blamed my client for his conviction and deportation and threatened to kill her,” said Luu-Ng.
Yi suffered domestic abuse in several of her relationships in the U.S. “She cycled in and out of abusive relationships. And unfortunately, that is just all too common now for impoverished young women like Sithy who come from such an intense and acute history of trauma,” said Luu-Ng.
Her history of domestic violence makes Yi potentially eligible for a U visa, given to victims of crimes who have suffered physical or mental abuse. Yi filed for a U visa in 2022; her application has been pending for almost four years.
Lawsuit
The Reeves Immigration Law Group, along with the AAPI Equity Alliance and Pacific Asian Counseling Services filed a lawsuit Jan. 14 seeking the immediate release of Yi from detention. The lawsuit names Attorney General Pam Bondi, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and various senior ICE officials. Defendants must respond no later than March 2.
As of Jan. 28, ICE media had not responded to multiple requests for comment on Yi’s case.
Deadly detention conditions
In a separate lawsuit filed Jan. 26, several human rights organizations—including CHIRLA, Immigrant Defenders Law Center, Public Counsel—and the law firm Wilkie Farr & Gallagher claimed that detainees at the Adelanto Center were being subject to inhumane conditions.
Detainees at Adelanto—which is privately run by the GEO Group—were denied critical medical care for life-threatening conditions, inadequate nutrition, lack of basic sanitation, and prolonged solitary confinement, claimed the lawsuit.
Two detainees died at Adelanto; one died just a week after he was detained.
Criminal history
All of Yi’s family are U.S. citizens. Yi herself held a green card until 2011, when she was arrested on a drug conviction of possession with intent to sell. She completed her sentence, but then spent a year in California state prison after violating the terms of her parole. Her green card was subsequently revoked and she has been out of status since then.
Luu-Ng said Yi has settled peacefully into her community following her time in prison and has complied with ICE directives. “My client has never been viewed as a threat or danger to the community by the individuals that are now detaining her,” she said. Yi did not have a Khmer interpreter during her trial for the drug charge, and therefore was denied due process, Luu-Ng added.
“ICE has on numerous occasions declared that she was not a danger to the community by not taking her into custodial detention. For 20 years, they’ve had numerous opportunities to deport my client to a third country, to take her into custodial detention, but they chose not to do that,” she stated.
South East Asians detained
“Ms. Sithy Yi’s story is not isolated,” said Manjusha Kulkarni, executive director of AAPI Equity Alliance, in a statement. “Southeast Asians, many of them refugees, are being detained at routine immigration check-ins and not returning home to their families. This is deplorable.”
”Ms. Yi is a beloved mother and grandmother who has endured unfathomable violence. We join the call for her immediate release and urge leaders at every level to condemn this unlawful denial of due process,” said Kulkarni.
“Detaining a survivor who has complied with every requirement and poses no risk does not advance public safety: it inflicts further harm,” said Myron Dean Quon, CEO of Pacific Asian Counseling Services. “Communities are stronger when survivors are supported, not re-traumatized.”
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