A Cambodian refugee has filed papers in Los Angeles federal court seeking release from ICE custody after she was allegedly unlawfully detained during a routine check-in, according to court documents obtained Thursday.
Sithy Yi’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus, filed Wednesday against U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and senior officials of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, claims her detention in an ICE facility in Adelanto serves no purpose other than to sow fear and undermine the rule of law.
“Ms. Yi has lived in the United States for more than four decades,” attorney Kim Luu-Ng, who has represented Yi since 2013, said in a statement. “All of her immediate family are U.S. citizens — her husband, mother, sisters, six children and eight grandchildren. She has rebuilt her life, complied with every requirement imposed on her and lived peacefully in the community for years. Yet ICE unjustly tore her away from her family and now seeks to deport her to a third country, where she faces grave danger or refoulement back to Cambodia. She is a survivor of genocide and domestic violence and deserves protection, not detention.”
Yi, who lives in Santa Ana, came to the United States after surviving the Khmer Rouge genocide and has lived in Southern California for 44 years, her attorney says.
In 2016, following a drug conviction, an immigration judge granted her withholding of removal under the United Nations Convention Against Torture, recognizing the risk that she would be tortured if returned to Cambodia, according to her petition.
A message seeking comment from ICE was not immediately answered.
Yi says she is also a victim of severe domestic violence and a cooperating crime survivor with a long-pending U-visa petition supported by a law-enforcement certification. For more than a decade, the DHS repeatedly determined that her detention was unnecessary and permitted her to live in the community under an order of supervision, her attorney said.
AAPI Equity Alliance and Pacific Asian Counseling Services are providing support and calling for Yi’s immediate release and an end to efforts to deport her to a third country.
“Ms. Sithy Yi’s story is not isolated,” said Manjusha P. Kulkarni, executive director of AAPI Equity. “Southeast Asians, many of them refugees, are being detained at routine immigration check-ins and not returning home to their families. This is deplorable. Ms. Yi is a beloved mother and grandmother who has endured unfathomable violence. We join the call for her immediate release and urge leaders at every level to condemn this unlawful denial of due process.”