"Feels Like We Lost Someone to Death"

The following was written by the partner of one of the many Cambodian Refugees who was detained last Fall when the US government made an agreement with Cambodia to begin deporting refugees back to a country many of them don't even know. These men and women have been labelled 'criminal aliens' but in reality are hard-working Philadelphians who struggle like most everyday to put food on the table, keep a roof over their heads and give their children a better education than was afforded them.

Ria Cruz is also an organizer with the One Love Movement, a coalition of family and friends working to bring their loved ones home and change laws that criminalize and deport good people rather look for solutions to the problems faced by Americans today.

Visit their website for more information: www.onelovemovement.org

Originally posted on Facebook by Ria Cruz:

155 Days Later

For the past couple of weeks this situation has been breaking me. I feel like I'm over being hurt and sad, I'm just getting angry...angry that a system like this can make innocent lives suffer. Breaks my heart that young children have to be so emotional about a situation that they shouldn't have to deal with.

We look at pictures and reminisce of the memories we shared together as a family. It almost feels like we lost someone to death; that's exactly how it feels.

This should be the happy times of our lives where we can build memories to carry with us, but we can't even fulfill that. Our free lives are limited and we have to live by someone else's clock.

The system will never make up for what they robbed me of. They took memories from me, they took memories from my children and replaced them with emptiness. I will never get that back.

Chally has tried his best to stay strong through this. It's not an easy situation to deal with alone. He needs as much love and support as he can get. I know I have to stay strong and keep going for him and the kids. Our energy feeds off of each other. When I'm weak, he's weak, when I have faith, he's confident. If I break, he wants to give up.

Detention has brought him to the point where it doesn't even matter where they want to put him, he just wants to be with his family- he just wants to hold his kids. I'm with him on this, but I will never give up fighting for him and anyone else that has to go through this torture.

I think back at the time I sat in that room with the ICE Field Director, the man who had every power to release people from detention. I've never cried so hard where I felt like my eyes would bleed. I've never begged someone with all my heart to just simply let these men go home to their families...only to get a blank response and denial of release. We've done everything to prove that these men aren't a threat to society, yet their reason for not releasing them is that they are. ICE almost has the power to make up any rules to protect them. We need to take that power away from them.

This system is using billions of dollars to do this to good people. This system is forcing people to give up everything they've worked so hard for, everything they've set their hearts on and everything they've learned in time what matters in life.

Please support the cause by helping us spread awareness, let's put an end to this...

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