Over two dozen people stood outside James K. Hahn City Hall East in Los Angeles on Wednesday, March 30 to show support for a Long Beach resident before and during his scheduled check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“We are here not only to support myself, but to support equality, and support not only equality but also in order to support family unity—to support community, not cages,” Long Beach resident and refugee Sithy Bin told the crowd that gathered to support him at his scheduled check-in with ICE.
Bin’s case highlights a controversial immigration practice in which the U.S. deports immigrants after they conclude jail or prison sentences. Immigrant rights groups, including the Long Beach Immigrant Rights Coalition and the Long Beach Southeast Asian Anti-Deportation Collective, have decried this practice, saying it punishes immigrants more than citizens for the same crimes.
“I know in my past I have made some poor decisions that made me end up serving time in prison,” Bin told the crowd. “[…] Yet I changed my life. I’ve transformed my life. God has changed my life.”
According to the Office of the District Attorney of Stanislaus County, in September 2005 Bin went to the home of a rival gang member and fired gunshots at the house and people in the front yard. One of the shots he fired struck a bystander who was not involved with any gangs.
In 2008, Bin was sentenced to 40 years-to-life after being found guilty of shooting at an inhabited building, assault with a semiautomatic firearm and active participation in a criminal street gang.
According to the Support Don’t Deport campaign, while in prison, Bin participated in rehabilitation and education programs, eventually becoming an ordained minister and peer mentor.
After being incarcerated for 15 years, Bin was granted parole. But instead of being released from prison, he was transferred directly into ICE custody to await deportation proceedings.
Bin was born in a refugee camp in Thailand to Cambodian parents who had fled the Khmer Rouge. He has lived in the U.S. since he was a toddler, according to the Support Don’t Deport campaign.
“Imagine after serving your complete sentence, being transferred to ICE on the day you’re supposed to be free,” Vanndearlyn Vong of the Long Beach Southeast Asian Anti-Deportation Collective said at the rally. “And on top of that being deported to a country you have never known. This is the reality that our incarcerated immigrants and refugees face in the local and state prison system unless we take action now.”
ICE allowed some immigrants to be released on bond in 2020 due to the dangers of COVID-19 spreading in its facilities. Bin was among them, and relocated to Long Beach soon after his release from ICE detention.
Although no longer detained, Bin has to wear an ankle monitor at all times.
His deportation proceedings continue and he has scheduled check-ins with ICE.
Bin requires a pardon from Gov. Gavin Newsom to be able to stay in the U.S.
A petition on Change.org calling for a gubernatorial pardon for Bin has garnered 1065 signatures as of March 31.
Two local immigrant advocacy groups, the Long Beach Southeast Asian Anti-Deportation Collective and the Long Beach Immigrant Rights Coalition, have voiced their support of a bill that could end the transfer of immigrants in California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) custody to ICE.
The Voiding Inequality and Seeking Inclusion for Our Immigrant Neighbors (VISION) Act, Assembly Bill (AB) 937, would entitle immigrants to the same rules of release and parole as citizens, keeping them from being transferred to ICE after being granted parole or release from CDCR.
“Once a Californian has paid their debt to society, and earned their release from our state prisons or jails, they should be released back to society rather than funneled into immigration detention and deportation,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement in February 2020.
A previous version of the bill, AB-2596, which was co-sponsored by the Sanctuary Long Beach Coalition, was killed in committee in May 2020.
The current VISION Act is being considered by the state senate after being passed by the Senate Appropriations Committee in August 2021.
