Welcome Thy Home!
Donation protected
Thy Chea, a Lowell resident and father and husband of U.S. citizens, was wrongly and unjustly deported to Cambodia in August 2018. After 18 months of fighting against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Thy has won and will return home to Massachusetts at the end of February! We are raising money to support Thy with his resettlement back to the US.
Thy Chea escaped from the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia with his parents and siblings as a child. Thy grew up in New Orleans and California and eventually settled in Massachusetts. More than twenty years ago, Thy made a mistake and served three months in prison. Since his release in 2000, Thy has held steady jobs, built a family with his U.S. citizen partner, and was the primary caregiver for his toddler daughter before he was wrongfully deported.
DHS deported Thy for non-deportable offenses and stopped him from returning even after he regained his green card more than half a year ago. As a result, Thy missed his newborn son’s birth and first birthday, and his family has financially and emotionally struggled in Thy’s absence. After a long fight, with resistance by his family and community, Thy will return home to Lowell on Wednesday, February 26, 2020.
Southeast Asians from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam are the largest refugee group resettled in the U.S. due to the U.S. involvement in the war in Southeast Asia in the 1970s. Without much support, many Southeast Asian refugees were resettled into under-resourced neighborhoods and faced poverty, and faced high levels of surveillance and profiling. Young children were often bullied in school and the families have endured constant displacement and trauma. The targeting of Southeast Asians for deportations in Lowell, Massachusetts has the second largest Cambodian American population and has been hit hard by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. From 2017 to 2018, deportations of Cambodians increased by 279%. However, it is moments like these that give us and the community hope in the fight to end Southeast Asian deportations.
Join us in welcoming Thy back home at Logan Airport on Wednesday, February 26th at 5:00pm! Thy will be the first deportee to return to the US on the East Coast, and the 4th Cambodian returnee across the country.
Thy Chea escaped from the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia with his parents and siblings as a child. Thy grew up in New Orleans and California and eventually settled in Massachusetts. More than twenty years ago, Thy made a mistake and served three months in prison. Since his release in 2000, Thy has held steady jobs, built a family with his U.S. citizen partner, and was the primary caregiver for his toddler daughter before he was wrongfully deported.
DHS deported Thy for non-deportable offenses and stopped him from returning even after he regained his green card more than half a year ago. As a result, Thy missed his newborn son’s birth and first birthday, and his family has financially and emotionally struggled in Thy’s absence. After a long fight, with resistance by his family and community, Thy will return home to Lowell on Wednesday, February 26, 2020.
Southeast Asians from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam are the largest refugee group resettled in the U.S. due to the U.S. involvement in the war in Southeast Asia in the 1970s. Without much support, many Southeast Asian refugees were resettled into under-resourced neighborhoods and faced poverty, and faced high levels of surveillance and profiling. Young children were often bullied in school and the families have endured constant displacement and trauma. The targeting of Southeast Asians for deportations in Lowell, Massachusetts has the second largest Cambodian American population and has been hit hard by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. From 2017 to 2018, deportations of Cambodians increased by 279%. However, it is moments like these that give us and the community hope in the fight to end Southeast Asian deportations.
Join us in welcoming Thy back home at Logan Airport on Wednesday, February 26th at 5:00pm! Thy will be the first deportee to return to the US on the East Coast, and the 4th Cambodian returnee across the country.
Organizer and beneficiary
Kevin Lam
Organizer
Boston, MA
Phuc Phan
Beneficiary
