Since November, Thy Tuy has sat inside of the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Facility in Bakersfield, uncertain of what his future holds.
Tuy, a lifelong Stocktonian, is facing deportation to Cambodia, a country he has never stepped foot in. He doesn’t know when his deportation will occur and has been living in limbo for the last 10 weeks.
The Record spoke to Tuy by phone from the Bakersfield facility, where immigration officials are holding him pending deportation.
“It’s nerve-racking,” Tuy said. “It’s like no matter how good you do here in the states, you could just be picked up and sent back … but it doesn’t stop me from choosing to do good anyway.”
Escaping genocide
Tuy’s family is from Cambodia, but they fled the Southeast Asian nation before he was born. They, along with tens of thousands of other Cambodians, fled to Thailand in the 1970s to escape genocide committed by the Khmer Rogue regime.
Tuy was born in a refugee camp in Thailand in 1983, though his family didn’t stay there for long. They settled in Stockton when Tuy was only a year old, becoming lawful permanent residents — also known as green card holders — and eventually U.S. citizens.