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CCH Holds Special Free Screening of Sentenced Home
As part of our mission to provide awareness about issues that affect Khmer communities across the globe, on August 23, CCH held a special screening of Sentenced Home, a documentary about Cambodian Americans who face deportation to Cambodia.
The films makers write, SENTENCED HOME follows three young Cambodian Americans through the deportation process. Raised in inner city Seattle, they pay an unbearable price for mistakes they made as teenagers. Caught between their tragic pasts and an uncertain future, each young man confronts a legal system that offers no second chances.
As part of a large group of Cambodian refugees admitted to the U.S. in the early 1980s, the deportees and their families found asylum in Seattle's grim public housing projects and hoped for a piece of the American dream. But, as permanent residents, the refugees were not afforded the same protections as American citizens. Under strict anti-terrorism legislation enacted in 1996, even minor convictions can result in automatic deportation.
More than 50 people attended the screening, and emotions ran high as they watched the story of Loeun Lun, a Cambodian who fled to the U.S. in 1981 after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979). He and his family arrived as refugees and settled in the projects of Tacoma, Washington. During the 1980s, Loeun went through tough times when his father passed away and his mother fell deep into depression. As time passed, Loeun got caught up with the wrong crowd, dropped out of high school, and in 1995, was convicted of assault for firing a gun into the air (no one was injured). He served 11 months in jail, and while in prison, he decided that he had to change his life.
Upon his release he got married and had children, paid off his debts, and worked long hours in a factory to support his family, including his ailing mother. He even decided in 1999 that he wanted to become a naturalized U.S. citizen. When in 2002 he inquired about the status about his 1999 application, he was immediately arrested and taken into custody. Because of his earlier assault conviction, despite the fact that he had served out his prison sentence and reformed his life after his release, Loeun was kept in detention and eventually deported to Cambodia in 2003. He has not been able to return to the United States, even to visit his wife, children, or mother. His wife was financially unable to take care of two children and her mother-in-law by herself, and had to declare bankruptcy. Loeun's mother believes she will die before she ever sees her son again.
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