Introduction

Thank you for your interest in learning more about the history of Southeast Asian refugees and the U.S. prison-to-deportation pipeline. Below, you’ll find a list of resources about Southeast Asian deportations. This list is not exhaustive, and we will continue to refresh this content as we come across new information.

Articles & Books

• Cambodian Deportees Return to a ‘Home’ They’ve Never Known (The Atlantic)
• ICE deported 25 Cambodian immigrants, most of whom arrived in the U.S. as refugees (NBC News)
• The Obama Record on Deportations: Deporter in Chief or Not? (Migration Policy Institute)
• Southeast Asian Refugees Are the Latest Victims of Trump’s Deportation Crackdown (The Nation)
• U.S. Deports The Latest Group Of Cambodian Immigrants (NPR)
• Decades After Resettling in America, Southeast Asians Continue to Fight for Basic Rights (Prism Report)
• Reps. Chu, Jayapal, Lofgren, & Pressley Introduce Southeast Asian Deportation Relief Act to Keep Refugee Families Together (Representative Judy Chu)
• He grew up in California. Now, he’s forced to live in his birth country — a place he’s never known (SF Chronicle)
• California prisons illegally send prisoners’ info to ICE, including those who merely look ‘foreign,’ lawsuit says (SF Chronicle)
• The woman confronting the US prison-to-deportation pipeline (Survived and Punished)
• Student Danny Thongsy: We can look within ourselves to find strength and persevere (UC Berkeley News)
• From the Land of Shadows: War, Revolution, and the Making of the Cambodian Diaspora (Professor Khatharya Um)

Reports & Briefs

• Southeast Asian American Deportations: Trends and Policy Implications reveals the sharp rise in deportations of Southeast Asian Americans and highlights the growing impact of immigration enforcement on this community. (SEARAC)
• ICE Arrests Among AAPI Californians Increased Tenfold in 2025: A fact sheet illustrating a sharp increase among AAPI communities since 2025, as well as important shifts in who is being targeted, including increases in arrests of women, children, and individuals with no criminal record, challenging claims that expanded enforcement efforts are focused primarily on people with criminal histories. (CA Immigrant Data Portal)

Videos

• “Deportation would mean losing my loved ones” Choy Pangthong
• Nowhere But Here (Documentary)
• Taking Root: Southeast Asian Stories of Resettlement in Philadelphia
• Deported: Forced Family Separation (NBC Asian America)

Organizations & Other Resources

• Tiny Toones (Phnom Penh, Cambodia): has made a huge difference in the lives of local underserved Khmer youth, but the organization is having difficulty securing funding. If you’re interested in supporting, you can donate at http://www.tinytoones.org/donate/ or contact them here.
• KVAO (Phnom Penh, Cambodia): an NGO that provides transitional and reentry support to individuals deported to Cambodia. They lost USAID funding in 2025 and have had to scale down, but they’re still trying to do what they can to help folks with getting identification cards and other necessary documents to live and work in the country.
• Asian Law Caucus: Resources for Southeast Asian Refugees Facing Deportation
• SEARAC: Immigration
• SEARR Campaign: Southeast Asian Relief & Responsibility (SEARR) Campaign

Kites to Southeast Asia Coalition

• Asian Prisoner Support Committee (APSC)
  www.asianprisonersupport.com
  Contact: John Lam, john@asignprisonersupport.org
• The Ba Lô Project
  www.baloproject.org
  Contact: Cat Bao Le, baloprogram@gmail.com
• Center for Empowering Refugees & Immigrants (CERI)
  www.cerieastbay.org
  Contact: Kanley Souet-Pich, kanley.spich@cerieastbay.org
• Collective Freedom
  www.collective-freedom.com
  Contact: Dr. Thao Ha, thaoha@collective-freedom.org
• Khmer Anti-Deportation & Advocacy (KhAAG)
  https://www.khaagwa.org
  Contact: Many Uch, manyuch@hotmail.com
• Minnesota 8 (MN8)
  www.minnesota8.org
  Contact: Montha Chum, montha@minnesota8.org
• New Breath Foundation
  www.new-breath.org
  Contact: Stephanie Gee, stephanie@new-breath.org
• New Light Wellness
  www.newlightwellness.org
  Contact: Elijah Chhum, elijah@newlightwellness.org
• Seattle Clemency Project
  www.seattleclemencyproject.org
  Contact: Brooke Kaufman, brooke@seattleclemencyproject.org

*Kites to Southeast Asia (SEA) is a coalition of the Asian Prisoner Support Committee (APSC), Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants (CERI), Collective Freedom, Khmer Anti-Deportation & Advocacy (KhAAG), Minnesota 8, New Breath Foundation, New Light Wellness, and the Seattle Clemency Project. On our journey to collective healing, Kites to SEA aims to learn about the needs of deported community members, listen to their wisdom, and strengthen our solidarity.