Deportation a rehabilitation They’re Fit to Reenter Society—Just Not Ours By Joe Garcia
Tith Ton
16 WALL CITY SPRING 2020
Ton speaking with his mother at ICE’s Yuba County Jail facility
certainty —hope, anxiety, fear, stress. Parolees with an “immigration hold” on their record face even more turmoil— the imminent threat of deportation or of aimlessly sitting in ICE detention. Their release from state custody may amount to nothing more than the trading of one set of prison bars for another. Nate Tan, co-director of the Asian Prisoner Support Community (APSC), believes California prisons may hold as many as 11,000 people with deportation removal orders. (The number is not limited to Southeast Asians but includes
Photos courtesy of Sok Sang (2)
earned parole almost 24 years after being sentenced to life for the murder he committed as a teenager. His family waited for him, never giving up. But upon Ton’s release from San Quentin State Prison, there were no hugs, no kisses, no tearful reunions—only a contracted private security van ready to whisk him away to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Now, he waits to learn whether he will be deported to Cambodia—his country of birth, but a country nonetheless foreign to him. “He should be coming home to us,” said Ton’s brother, Sok Sang. “Isn’t that why he was granted parole?” After Ton was found suitable for parole last July by California’s Board of Parole Hearings (BPH), Governor Newsom had the mandated 150-day period to review Ton’s case and potentially revoke his release. Two ICE agents showed up at San Quentin on day 151 to tell Ton they’d be taking him into custody. “But first they congratulated me for earning my parole,” said Ton. Any prisoner found suitable for parole after a life sentence faces a whirlwind of emotions during those 150 days of un-
people from all over the world.) Although the current emphasis on deportation has its roots in a 1996 law signed by President Clinton, the Trump administration has strengthened ICE enforcement since 2017. Anti-deportation activists stress that deportation contradicts the state’s belief in rehabilitation as an essential component of the criminal justice system. They are pressing Governor Newsom to end California’s longstanding practice of handing paroled individuals over to ICE, especially after he vetoed a 2019 immigration bill that included such provisions. “Families, including Ton’s family, are tired of constantly being torn apart by institutions,” said Tan. Two advocacy groups, the APSC and the Asian Law Caucus (ALC), asked Newsom to step in on Ton’s behalf. The governor has on rare occasions issued full pardons to paroled individuals whose criminal records make them subject to deportation. Holding banners emblazoned with “When We Fight, We Win,” they organized protest rallies at the State Capitol in Sacramento and later at the San Francisco detention center where Ton was first taken. Ton’s family and
