Ed Markey, Joe Kennedy working with Cambodian community amid deportations

U.S. Sen. Edward Markey’s and U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III’s staffs are working with the local Cambodian community as 10 refugees with years-old criminal convictions face deportation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“We need to know more about each one of these individual cases while simultaneously saying it’s just a part of (President Trump’s) pattern of trying to find ways of sending immigrants in our country back to their country of origin,” Markey said Tuesday after an Oxfam refugee roundtable. “My staff is working right now on this issue with the Cambodian community so we can fully understand what’s happening, and then put in place a strategy to protect those people who need protection from the Trump administration.”

Kevin Lam, organizing director of the Asian American Resource Workshop, confirmed Markey’s office is in contact with his group and the Asian Outreach Unit at Greater Boston Legal Services.

“His staff have been supportive and working with some members of the Cambodian community on the issue of deportations in the Southeast Asian community,” Lam said.

While Lam said the groups “appreciate all the support” they also “want to urge him, alongside all the Massachusetts congressional members and elected officials, to take a public stance against Southeast Asian deportations.”

Kennedy, who is also engaging with the Cambodian community and immigrant advocates, said, “What you need is to have an immigration system that is far more reflective of our values, and the fact this is how the administration is choosing to use those resources is unconscionable.”

Asian American activists protested the deportation notices outside the Boston federal immigration courthouse on Monday.

Cambodian deportations have been happening since about 2002, when Cambodia agreed to begin repatriating refugees convicted of felony crimes in the United States. But they’ve risen sharply since President Trump took office and imposed visa sanctions on Cambodia and a handful of other nations in order to compel them to speed up the process.

Kennedy and Markey, now competing for Markey’s U.S. Senate seat, participated in an Oxfam discussion on refugee admissions on Tuesday, in which advocates slammed Trump’s new refugee cap, which dropped from 30,000 to 18,000 in the next year.

Markey introduced the Guaranteed Refugee Admissions Ceiling Enhancement Act in April that would set the minimum annual refugee admissions at 95,000. He recently put forward a bill for a new humanitarian program to aid climate refugees. Markey called the legislation “centerpiece bills” on the issue and promoted his leadership on them to draw contrast with Kennedy.

Markey said if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell doesn’t allow immigration policy votes on the floor, “then we will just replace Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2nCvh1T