Community,

We need urgent collective action and support for our beloved community member, Vy, who was detained by ICE on October 8th, 2025 and transferred to the Adelanto ICE detention facility.

Those detained in Adelanto face systematic abuse and neglect, including lack of access to medical care and life-saving medical treatment, lack of access to food, water, clean clothing and basic hygienic conditions, limited communication with their families, and widespread exposure to respiratory illnesses [1]. Just last month a detained person died in Adelanto, the 14th death this year in ICE custody [2]. The number of deaths in ICE detention over the first six months of 2025 are the highest recorded for any year publicly available [3] – these are the life-threatening risks V and our community members face inside.

Vy is a refugee and a beloved husband, father, and community leader. He was born in a refugee camp in Thailand after his family survived the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia. Vy survived the profound challenges of resettlement and migration to the U.S. and growing up in the U.S. as a refugee.

Vy is known for helping others and giving anything he has to help others. He has four children with his partner and years ago he became a stay-at-home father. Vy’s four-year old son has autism and requires special care, and Vy lovingly cares for him and for all of their kids.

On the decision to become a stay-at-home dad Vy says, “I have cherished this decision, as it gave me the chance to spend even more time with my son and become the father I always wanted to be…Being a father means everything to me, and the milestones of my children’s growth and every small moment of their lives are so very important. My wife and I understand that the role of parenting doesn’t have to be a one-sided job or just a woman’s job. I enjoy teaching my kids that both of their parents love them and take care of them and that we help each other…I always wanted that for when my partner and I created a family of our own…

Two years ago, we started our own cleaning business so we could accommodate my wife’s full-time work, our kids, and their schooling and have the chance to set our own work hours. We had to pause our business due to the ongoing raids and targeting by ICE…I have committed everything to my family and community and to continued personal growth. A pardon [from Governor Gavin Newsom] would be my only means of protection, the only path available to me to remain with my family, continue contributing to my community, and continue being a loving and needed caretaker for my children, who depend on me.”

If deported, Vy would be forcibly displaced to Cambodia, a country he has never been to and has no connections in. He would be ruptured from his family, his partner, his children, and his community. Vy has a serious heart condition that he takes medication for and high blood pressure, risk factors for severe illness, hospitalization and death from COVID-19. Vy's risk of contracting COVID-19 and other life-threatening illnesses is extremely high in detention, where medical neglect and denial of medical care has been systematic. If deported, he would also lose access to the treatment and care he has had for his heart condition.

We are urgently seeking funds to support Vy in his freedom fight and survival inside and to urgently support his family. Vy’s partner was laid off in the beginning of the year during the LA fires and because of targeting by ICE it has been hard for Vy to work. Now with this fight for Vy’s life they have exhausted all of their savings and have begun selling their personal belongings to make ends meet.

If you can, please contribute to Vy’s Freedom and Survival Fund. The funds will be used to support:

-- Vy’s legal fight and fight for his freedom from detention and deportation

-- Vy’s survival inside including commissary, phone calls with family, and transportation costs so his family and loved ones can visit him in Adelanto

-- Mutual aid for the survival of Vy’s partner and four children

Thank you Community for your tremendous care for Vy and his family and for all of our community members who are being targeted by ICE. Your support, however small, is a lifesaving pathway. It allows our community to sustain in the fight for their freedom and for our collective freedom. Thank you.

[1] https://www.disabilityrightsca.org/drc-advocacy/investigations/inside-the-adelanto-ice-processing-center

[2]

https://www.disabilityrightsca.org/latest-news/death-at-adelanto-detention-facility-heightens-alarm-about-treatment

[3]

https://www.npr.org/2025/09/23/nx-s1-5549411/ossoff-warnock-noem-immigration-detention-death