Thirty-one year old Lundy Khoy was born in a Thai refugee camp to parents who were fleeing the ethnic cleansing in Cambodia. When Lundy was a year old, she and her family were granted legal permanent residence in the United States.
Lundy, who was a raised an all-American and has lived in the US for 30 years, is now facing deportation to Cambodia as a result of unjust laws that mandate the deportation of noncitizens, even for relatively minor crimes. This was because of a mistake Lundy made as a teenager, when she fell in with the wrong crowd.
Lundy, her friends and family are now making pleas to ICE to allow her to stay in the country, and encouraging people to save Lundy Khoy by supporting the petition.
“Apart from being born in a Thai refugee camp, Lundy has lived in America for her whole life. She considers herself an American through and through, and grew up as many Americans do,” says the spokesperson.
During her freshman year of college in 2000, Lundy was convicted for a drug crime. She served three months and was released for good behavior. Eager to start again, Lundy moved back in with her parents, got a job and enrolled in a college.
Life took an unexpected turn in 2004 when ICE agents accosted Lundy during a probation meeting. She was taken to Hampton Roads Regional Jail in Portsmouth, Virginia. At Hampton Roads, because she is not an American citizen, Lundy was held for nine months waiting to be deported to Cambodia.
However, because she was not born in Cambodia, the country refused to accept her. ICE released Lundy and in April 2012, she was enrolled in the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP). Like other immigrants in the program, Lundy was subject to close monitoring using ankle tracking bracelets and regular home visits.
As Lundy’s sister explains in the petition: "Lundy's deportation order is a result specifically of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA). These laws dramatically increased the kinds of offenses for which non-citizens (including legal permanent residents like Lundy who arrived as refugees) can be detained and deported. The laws do not allow immigration judges to consider Lundy's individual circumstances (her ties to the U.S., her work history, or her community service) before ordering her to be deported."
While waiting for the final decision on her deportation, Lundy has found a job at the University of Phoenix and is near completion of her bachelor’s degree at college. She is also working hard to publicize her case for the benefit of others.
“Lundy now faces deportation from the country she knows and loves to the country she has never even visited, and we’re encouraging people to show their support simply by reading her story and deciding for yourself if she deserves this fate,” the spokesperson said.
