Release Minnesota 8
Jenny Srey and Montha Chum
In August of 2016, eight Cambodian Americans from Minnesota ("MN 8") were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Since then, the families of these detained individuals have been demanding the immediate release of their loved ones. In the spring of 2017, one detainee was released back to his family, four were deported to Cambodia, and three are still being detained.

The MN 8 are caught up in an immigration system that since 1996 strictly limits the abilities of immigration judges to consider issues of family ties, atonement, and rehabilitation. Each of these men have served their sentences and were leading otherwise regular lives with spouses, children and work when they were detained. Each of them came to the US many years ago as young children. Something is critically wrong with a system that deports individuals who arrived here as refugee infants and toddlers.

Danny Thongsy
Impacted Lao detainee from San Francisco, Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus' Yuri Kochiyama Fellow Awardee, Asian Prisoner Support Committee

Houth "Billy" Taing
Impacted Chinese-Cambodian detainee from San Gabriel Valley 

Faculty host: Thu Huong Nguyen Vo, Professor, Asian American Studies and Asian Languages and Cultures

RSVP: https://laulecturedeportationawareness.eventbrite.com

Sponsor(s): Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Asian American Studies Center, Asian American Studies Department , Chancellor's Advisory Council on Immigration Policy, Asian American Studies Graduate Student Association, Asian Pacific Coalition, United Khmer Students, and Vietnamese Student Union