Lundy Khoy

None of the current immigration bills would protect Lundy from deportation. Congress should create a fair and inclusive path that allows immigrants like Lundy to maintain and pursue legal

status rather than expand the number of reasons to deport them.

Lundy was born in a Thai refugee camp after her parents �ed the genocide in Cambodia. When Lundy was one year old, she and her family came to the U.S. as refugees and were granted legal

permanent residence.

United States

In 2000, when Lundy was 19 and in college, a police o�cer stopped her and asked if she had any drugs. Lundy truthfully told the o�cer that she had tabs of ecstasy and he arrested her for possession with intent to distribute. Following the advice of

her lawyer, Lundy pled guilty.

In 2004, Lundy arrived at a regularly scheduled probation appointment to show o� her college report card. Excited to �nish her probation period, Lundy was shocked when she was

immediately detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She was taken to Hampton Roads County jail in southern Virginia without warning and imprisoned for almost 9 months.

After being released, Lundy worked hard to get her life back on schedule. She is now working to complete her Bachelor’s Degree in Communications and works full time as an enrollment

advisor for the University of Phoenix. Lundy is involved in her community by volunteering with local charities such as Habitat for Humanity and March of Dimes.

Despite Lundy’s individual circumstances and exemplary behavior, in April, 2012, Lundy was told that she would be placed in the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP) and recom-

mended for immediate deportation. Meanwhile, Lundy’s family are devastated about her imminent deportation to Cambodia, a country that she has never even seen. She has no family members in

Cambodia; everyone lives in the United States.

FACT

FACT

72% of those who were deported between 1997 and 2007 were deported for non-violent o�enses. [2]

Lundy’s 12 year-old conviction constitutes a so-called “aggravated felony” o�ense under immigration law for which judges are not allowed to consider individual circum-stances. Lundy is automatically subject to mandatory deportation.

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Thailand

Cambodia

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Congress mandates that DHS keep 34,000 immigration detention beds �lled everyday, costing about $2 billion per year. This does not take into account the human, social, and �scal costs of removing contribut-ing members from their families and forcing them to �ght their cases from faraway jails even if they pose no safety or �ight risk.

[1] Olesia Plokhii and Tom Mashberg, Cambodian-Americans confronting deportation, Boston Globe, January 27, 2013, available at http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2013/01/27/cambodian-americans-confronting-deportation/MK3TQy80UJyG2HjfKKtEIO/story.html [2] http://www.hrw.org/ sites/default/�les/reports/us0409web.pdf [3] http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/fssc06st.pdf

Since the U.S. and Cambodia signed a repatriation agreement in 2002, approximately 600 Cambodian-Americans have been deported, many of whom came as children seeking refuge from the Vietnam War and the Khmer Rouge. [1]

Lundy served three months and was released for good behavior. She moved back in with her parents, got a job, and enrolled in community college. She also completed four years of super-vised probation without missing appointments or failing drug tests. Lundy went back to school

and worked hard to make up for the lost time.

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) wrote a letter to ICE demanding that Lundy be allowed to stay in the US: "Her entire family is in the United States," reads Wolf's letter. "She has invested in her education and is a productive member of society. Her conviction, while serious, has not been a consistent problem. This is a typical story of someone who entered the United States as a very young child, made a mistake, has rebuilt her life, but, due to the fact she is not a US citizen, has serious repercussions to her conviction. In any other circum-stance, her rebuilt life would be applauded."

FACT