Re: Khmerican's crimes are the by-products of the American policy
The U.S. government is so quick to deport Cambodian refugees who are in the U.S. LEGALLY and have already done time for the crimes they have committed in the past, yet the U.S DOES NOT deport illegal Mexicans just because the Mexicans pull the race card saying they're being deported simply out of discrimination... Completely unfair. Not trying to be racist towards Hispanics, but all they have to do to stay in America is if they're illegal just protest in the streets until the White American government gets sick of it and let them stay. Easy win for them. They flip the script to where they make it seem the U.S. is being unconstitutional and prejudice towards them when in reality, they broke the law by illegally entering this country.
There's actual legitimacy in our argument for having the right to stay here because we came legally as refugees! Unfortunately, within our Cambodian community, we don't have that many people to rally and do the same to the point where it will have a significant impact. We, as proud Khmers, need to do something about this contradictory injustice, all the way to the point where the U.S. government acknowledges our voice. If America wants to get rid of people, at least get rid of people who were never supposed to belong here in the first place. Come on, now!
The U.S. government is so quick to deport Cambodian refugees who are in the U.S. LEGALLY and have already done time for the crimes they have committed in the past, yet the U.S DOES NOT deport illegal Mexicans just because the Mexicans pull the race card saying they're being deported simply out of discrimination... Completely unfair. Not trying to be racist towards Hispanics, but all they have to do to stay in America is if they're illegal just protest in the streets until the White American government gets sick of it and let them stay. Easy win for them. They flip the script to where they make it seem the U.S. is being unconstitutional and prejudice towards them when in reality, they broke the law by illegally entering this country.
There's actual legitimacy in our argument for having the right to stay here because we came legally as refugees! Unfortunately, within our Cambodian community, we don't have that many people to rally and do the same to the point where it will have a significant impact. We, as proud Khmers, need to do something about this contradictory injustice, all the way to the point where the U.S. government acknowledges our voice. If America wants to get rid of people, at least get rid of people who were never supposed to belong here in the first place. Come on, now!
4 comments:
Thumbs UP to the Author!
The Cambodian government was coerced to sign the extradition treaty when threaten with an array of elements, which could affect the Cambodian government, including aid and more latitude for the high-ranking officials and their children's schooling and visitation in the US. Again, the choice for Cambodia was clear--to sign the treaty that is. Whereas Mexico is completely different story.
Actually 10:32,
United States do have a treaty with Mexico to deport their citizens. The difference is how they enforce it. Of course we are at a disadvantage because of the sheer population gap. Almost half the united states population is Mexican now which means politicians are hungry for votes. We are just a teeny minority but we can have a bigger voice if we can collaborate as a tight community. If that doesnt happen we will always be at a disadvantage like our fellow countrymen in Cambodia.
Historically speaking, the United States had carved up much of its present land mass out of the former territories of Mexico. This had been achieved under America's self- belief in 'Manifest Destiny'. Thus, in most Mexicans' eyes, the US is the embodiment of an Evil Empire in much the same vein as Vietnam has been in the eyes of most Khmer people for the last 3 hundred years or so.
In crossing the border into the US either legally or illegally, the Mexicans probably adjudge themselves to have played their parts in reclaiming (to some measure) something of their ancestral homeland!
This situation can not be likened to the unhappy circumstances experienced by Khmer people today since Vietnam's Evil Empire is still expanding at Cambodia's expense and the influx of Vietnamese settlers into Cambodia -temporarily halted in the 1970s - has resumed its normal momentum and course since Vietnamese troops entered the country in 1979. Worse still, even the indigenous Khmer people of the Mekong Delta have been driven off their ancestral lands and rice farms and into Cambodia, swelling the ranks of their near destitute and dispossessed cousins across the country.
One cannot condone someone for the crimes they had committed in their past. However, the use or exercise of logic or rationality when not tempered with due liberality or humanity could result in people being driven over the cliff and into the abyss of despair and tragedy, taking along with them wholly innocent lives like those of this young 'American' family.
To refer to this family as 'Khmerican' is a misnomer in a practical sense given that the expected deportee had left his native country since he was probably still in his nappies. 'Race' or 'ethnicity' is a fluid social concept or construction; it largely depicts what the subjects - humans - experience with body and soul as they interact and navigate the world around them which, in this specific instance, can be anything but sub-tropical Cambodia.
Korea is for the Koreans, Japan is for the Japanese, and should Americans be found breaking the law in either of those countries they would be duly punished for their offense or be repatriated to the US. But in this case, are the deportees really Cambodians in the sense just described? How does this case differ morally from the 20 Uighurs Cambodia had had to send back to China; an incident which invited much media moralising and disapproval from the American government even though Cambodia would have been hard pressed to do anything better given China's leverage and influence over her national affairs?
Kouprey
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