A judge issued an order this week to prevent a Cambodian American refugee from being deported from the United States, but the ruling came two days after the man had already been deported, reports the Sacramento Bee.
The man who has not been identified was one of 30 refugees forced to board a plan by Immigration and Customs Enforcement out of the Prairieland Detention Center in Texas Monday.
According to CNE, all the deportees were men between the ages of 33 and 60. They arrived in Cambodia on Wednesday.
Kevin Lo, an attorney with the Asian Law Caucus, explained to the Bee why the court came too late.
Emergency stays are only granted when a deportation is imminent, but ICE does not often divulge when someone might be deported due to security concerns. As a result, what happened in this latest deportations has unfortunately happened before.
“Before the flight, ICE will move immigrants around,” Lo said. “We lost track of the people in weeks. Phone calls are limited.”
He says ICE will divulge a deportation date about half the time. That means half the time they don’t, making the timing of emergency stays difficult.
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RE: Favorable court order comes too late to prevent deportation of Cambodian American refugee: ICE is such a deceitful agency. Surely they do this on purpose so that they can deport as much as they want. This is certainly evil and inhumane, but that’s the way of our present government at this point.