Great work by all the community members who've been working with the Minnesota 8 to help Ched Nin to stay in this country with his children and wife.
From AAPress:
Following months of sustained community advocacy, long-time Minnesota resident Ched Nin was released to his wife and their five children in late February after being held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for over six months [...] Quyen Dinh, executive director of the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC), said, “Jenny and the Release Minnesota 8 campaign demonstrate the power of grassroots organizing and embody the fierce resilience of our refugee communities. Ched was finally released through legal channels, but it took months of community mobilization by Cambodian Americans and advocates to come this far.”
Read it in full here.
At the same time, as AApress reports - 5 are still looking to be deported.
Another link if you so desire @ http://www.searac.org/new/breaking-cambodian-deportation-halted-due-groundswell-community-support
At an immigration hearing on February 24th, 2017, Ched was represented by University of Minnesota law professor Linus Chan and his students John Hoag and Shane Fitzmaurice through the James Bringer Center for New Americans. He was released after an immigration judge granted him a 212(h) waiver and regained his green card on the grounds that his family would suffer extreme hardship in the event of his deportation.
Julie Mao, an attorney with the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, explained, "We are grateful that the Court recognized the extreme hardship that Ched's deportation would have on his family and community by granting him this rare form of relief. We celebrate Ched's release and the organizing that brought us to this victory, while recognizing the thousands of families impacted by deportations that are unable to access such relief due to our unjust immigration laws. We will continue to support grassroots community in exposing and organizing against our harsh incarceration and deportation systems."
"The courageous organizing in the Release Minnesota 8 campaign shows that even if our people have convictions, we will fight and we can win. In Ched's case, I believe that the broad movement support is what made the difference," said Jacinta Gonzalez, Field Director of Mijente. "This is a win for organized communities that lays out a road map for how to continue fighting against criminalization and deportations under a much more aggressive administration."
