U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement quietly deported an estimated 25 Cambodian immigrants this week, the agency confirmed Friday to NBC News.
The group, which largely consisted of individuals who arrived in the country legally as refugees after the Vietnam War but have been convicted of crimes, left for Cambodia on Monday. This was the first round of repatriations this year, even as deportations in the Southeast Asian community have significantly increased under the Trump administration.
Kevin Lo, a staff attorney at the civil rights organization Asian Americans Advancing Justice – ALC, described the deportations as part of “the ongoing attacks by the Trump administration on this vulnerable immigrant population.”
