#deported

After deportation, a family from Wisconsin will start anew in Cambodia

Lisa Kum has an endless list of tasks every day. The 41-year-old from Cottage Grove, Wisconsin, has a 19-month-old daughter and a high school-aged son. She’s also tending to her health after undergoing elbow surgery earlier this year.

Nowadays, she’s also busy growing her business that sells refurbished HP printer parts — so that she can sell it and move her family to Cambodia. That’s because Kum’s husband, Sothy Kum, was deported to Cambodia, a country he left when he was just 2 years old. She plans to shut down the small business they started together four years ago and start over 8,000 miles away.

“It’s pretty much been pure hell,” she says. “It’s very emotional. At the same time, you have to get up every morning and keep going because what other choice do you have?”

Read the full story at pri.org.

FromMeltIce.net

Saad was born in Bangladesh and brought to the United States in 1994 at the age of three. His father filed for political asylum. The claim was denied and his father elected to not leave the United States resulting in the entire family being put into proceedings. At the same time Saad’s uncle filed an immigrant visa for his father in 1999. The father was advised to hide until the petition was approved. The petition was approved by the National Visa Center in 2009 and is currently in Bangladesh for processing although it is felt the father will be denied a visa based on his being deported.

Saad had absolutely no knowledge of any of this as a child. It was only when Saad was in high school and preparing to go to college that he learned he was not a citizen. Saad was an excellent student and graduated from Liberty High School in Frisco, Texas with honors. He was accepted to such institutions as Texas A&M University, Baylor University, University Texas- Austin, University of Oklahoma and Southern Methodist University. Due to financial issues, Saad accepted a full scholarship to University Texas- Arlington in the field of Electrical Engineering. His life in America and his education came to an abrupt halt when he was detained on November 24, 2009 for forty two days in Batavia, New York and deported to Bangladesh on January 6, 2010.

Saad is currently in Malaysia as his supporters try to figure out a way to bring him back to the United States.