Why are people using the Khmer Rouge excuse in 2025?
Dawn raids and the threat of being arrested at work spread anxiety among unauthorised migrants in the United States, including more than 1.3 million people from Asia.
www.abc.net.au
Trump push to deport 'illegal aliens' strikes fear into Asians living in the US
The United States is the only home Sam has ever known after fleeing the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia as a child.
"During the genocide, half my family were murdered, including my father. So I came here with my mother and her family," the 46-year-old said.
But Sam, who requested the ABC change his name for fear of being targeted for speaking out, now lives in fear that any day he could be deported to a country where he has no family and doesn't speak the language.
Dawn raids and the threat of being arrested at work have spread anxiety among people across the United States, including more than 1.3 million people from Asia, amid a crackdown against unauthorised migrants and migrants with criminal records.
"Many people are now afraid to go to work, visit their places of worship, attend school, or even seek medical care out of fear of encountering immigration enforcement," said Martin Kim, immigration advocacy director for the Washington-based civil rights group Asian Americans Advancing Justice — AAJC.
"Others fear that going into any public area could put them at risk of arrest."
Shortly after taking office on January 20,
US President Donald Trump signed a flurry of executive orders including declaring a "national emergency" at the US' southern border and vowing to deport "criminal aliens".
He ordered authorities
to send 30,000 migrants to Guantanamo Bay, a military facility in Cuba used to detain terror suspects since the attacks of September 11, 2001, where US authorities are accused of human rights abuses.
Mr Trump has promised the largest deportation program in history, granting permission for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to target schools and churches as part of efforts to arrest migrants.
US Customs and Border Protection acting commissioner Pete Flores said in a statement his staff were "aggressively implementing" the president's executive orders.
"Illegal aliens are being arrested, detained and then rapidly removed," the agency said.
Immigration lawyer Ruby Powers, who is based in Houston, Texas, told
the ABC News Daily podcast that "even people who were born in the US were questioning their rights" as citizens as the result of Mr Trump's policies.
Ms Powers said ICE raids and detentions were often happening "at the crack of dawn, in the morning when people are still waking up or getting ready to go to school or work".
Asian migrants in the US who face deportation
There are around 330,000 people who have Cambodian heritage in the US, who face higher rates of poverty and disadvantage than other Asian migrant groups.
"Coming to America was supposed to be a happy moment," said Sam, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
"But coming here, I was faced with a lot of discrimination, bullying, got beat up. I've never felt safe."
That led him to being involved with gangs and undergoing a long period of incarceration.
"A lot of youth in those days got in trouble with the law … our family didn't understand the law, and a lot of us have convictions," he said.
A criminal record means that despite having served his time, Sam still faces deportation.
"We live every day and our thoughts is on: 'Is it today? Is today the day?' And it's hard to navigate each day without fear.
"I have a young son that is in fear himself. He's in fear of me being taken away from him," he said.
Between 2017 and 2018, during the first Trump administration, removals of Cambodians increased by 279 per cent, according to the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.
Members of many other Asian diaspora communities are also at risk of deportation.
Indians are the third largest group of undocumented migrants in the US, according to the Washington-based Pew Research Center, after only people from Mexico and El Salvador.
Pew estimates based on augmented US census data from 2022 put the number of unauthorised Indian migrants in the US at 725,000, while China (375,000), South Korea (110,000) and the Philippines (130,000) were also among the top countries of origin.
Mr Trump has repeatedly alluded to undocumented Chinese men of "fighting age" entering the US, which he has suggested could be intended to form an "army".
"They're coming in from China … and they're all military age and they mostly are men," Mr Trump said during a campaign rally in April 2024.
"Are they trying to build a little army in our country? Is that what they're trying to do?"
Asian Americans allegedly detained based on how they look
Rhea Yap, head of the Chicago-based Chinese Mutual Aid Association, said they had been working hard on "know your rights" education for community members, especially given the risk of people being targeted by authorities based on their physical appearance.
"Some people will be picked up by ICE even if they are a legal permanent resident or citizen just based on their visage,"
she said.
The ABC has contacted ICE for comment.
Mr Kim said ongoing legal challenges meant "many of the most concerning policy changes are proposals that have not yet been implemented — and may never be implemented".
"Much of the harm of those proposals is the fear and confusion that they create in our community," he said.
Sam said many people he knew were "trying to figure out a way to say goodbye, but not say goodbye, just in case" they were detained by ICE.
"The way deportation is done is so inhumane. The law does not think about the children that are left behind, the families left behind," he said.
"If the head of the household gets deported, what happens to that family?"
