CU-Boulder students [incl. a Cambodian-American student] protest immigration law on Arizona streets

Melissa Khat and Sergio Gutierrez (Courtesy photo)

Graduate: 'This experience has been emotionally intense'

07/29/2010
By Vanessa Miller
Daily Camera Staff Writer

Growing up in Denver with Cambodian parents who came to the United States in 1979 to escape the violence in their home nation, University of Colorado senior Melissa Khat said she has a deep appreciation for the nation's immigration roots.

That's why on Thursday -- the day Arizona's controversial immigration law took effect -- Khat, 22, and several of her Boulder-based friends were on the streets in Tucson to "stand in solidarity" with others who feel the law goes too far and promotes racial profiling.

On Wednesday evening, after opponents celebrated a judge's order blocking much of the state's immigration law, Khat and her group joined dozens of protesters in the small town of Guadalupe, just south of Phoenix.

"A good number of community members blocked the main intersection into the community and stood there for an hour," Khat said.

The demonstration was peaceful, she said.

"Any peaceful action that we can take to get our voices heard will make a big difference," Khat said.

The judge's temporary injunction of the law Wednesday delayed some of its most contentious parts, including a section requiring officers to check a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws and parts requiring immigrants to carry their papers. Provisions of the law that are less controversial were allowed to take effect Thursday.

The state asked an appeals court to lift the judge's order Thursday as Arizona communities such as Tucson and Phoenix filled with protesters, including dozens who were arrested after confronting officers in riot gear.

Protests that Khat and her friends took part in Thursday were nonviolent shows of solidarity, she said. Some people held signs that read "I am not a document" and "We reject racism," and other people waved flags while walking through the streets and blocking intersections.

Temperatures soared to more than 100 degrees in parts of Arizona, but Khat said the heat was bearable because of the cause they were supporting.

"It's so worth the weather -- being here, standing among these people and being part of history," she said. "It's a motivating and inspirational experience for me."

Khat, who's studying international affairs at CU, said she's passionate about immigration issues because her parents were refugees.

"They have plenty of stories of struggling to be in the United States," she said, adding that the Arizona law adds even more pressure on immigrants trying to fit in and build a life. "It's racism, and clearly it's not something we can tolerate in the 21st century."

CU graduate Sergio Gutierrez, 23, who joined Khat in their drive from Boulder to Arizona this week, said he was compelled to protest out of disgust for provisions in the new law. Being among all types of people united in one cause has been refreshing, he said.

"It's nice to see everyone come together like this," he said. "This experience has been emotionally intense and symbolic for everyone, particularly for those people who are willing to get arrested."

He and Khat, who spent upwards of six hours in the Arizona sun Thursday, plan to hit the streets again today. Gutierrez said they will be "cop watching," which they have been trained to do.

"We will be watching the police and monitoring their behavior and their professionalism to make sure everyone is being treated appropriately," he said.

Newly arrived refugees and immigrants face hardship, same as Americans

Nov 3, 2007
By Merry Mackinnon
The Gresham Outlook (Gresham, Oregon, USA)

When Sokpak Bhell first arrived in the United States from Cambodia in the early ’80s, like many refugees she was relieved to be in this country, but adjusting wasn’t as easy as she expected.

In Cambodia, where she moved from one refugee camp to another, older people who had visited the United States told her that it was a clean, peaceful place.

“They said, ‘You can’t even spit on the sidewalk there,’ ” Bhell said. “They tell you, ‘It’s the land of opportunity.’ And it is, in a way. But you have to work for it, and it takes a long time.”

After hard work, Bhell now is established, with a home in Gresham and a career as an anti-poverty coordinator for Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO), where she has been employed for five years. Located at 10301 N.E. Glisan St., the organization’s main office provides employment, job training, interpretation, senior, family and domestic violence services, not only to the multi-cultural immigrant and refugee community, but as of last summer, to mainstream Multnomah County residents, as well.

Bhell’s work includes helping other refugees get settled, many of whom are shocked, as Bhell was, by the disconnect between their expectations of life in this country, and the reality they face.

“When they come here, it’s the opposite of what they think,” Bhell said.

Refugees coming to Portland largely from countries in Africa and from the Union of Myanmar (Burma), places where there is political turmoil, sometimes have problems getting established.

“A lot of the community currently coming from Somalia, for example, is having trouble adjusting,” Bhell said.

She said that unlike some groups, African immigrants don’t always have a tight-knit community in place where they can buy food and find others who may speak their language and practice similar customs.

However, Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization’s recently opened Africa House should alleviate some of that isolation, Bhell said.

A number of refugees arriving here find that they left behind very good careers, Bhell said. They were doctors and engineers or worked as skilled crafts people.

“But when they come here, they can’t use their skills,” Bhell said.

For one, language barriers can be daunting, especially when the skill is technical, as in medicine or engineering, and new education and certification may be required in order to practice their profession.

Like Bhell, Sokhom Tauch, the organization’s executive director, was a Cambodian refugee when he arrived here in 1975. One of the first Cambodians in Portland, Tauch, who had been in the Cambodian navy, said his initial employment in Portland consisted of low-wage service jobs.

“I did all kinds of jobs: dishwasher, janitor, busboy. When Oregon Employment Services sent me to a busboy job, I misunderstood what it meant. I thought it was about working in a bus and collecting people’s fare,” wrote Tauch in a short memoir posted on the organization’s Web site at www.irco.org.

In general, those who come to this country without any skills are the ones who face the most barriers to becoming self sufficient, Bhell said. It used to be that when immigrants or refugees settled here, many would find employment at the nearest factory. But now, according to Bhell, the economics have changed and manufacturing jobs have disappeared.

“A lot of people who face poverty, they don’t have a lot of skills,” Bhell said. “Manufacturing jobs and physical labor are the only things they can do.”

Bhell refers not only to the economic struggle of refugee clients she helps with rent and utility assistance and other services, but also to Outer East residents who may have been born here. A no-wrong-door policy assures that not just refugees and immigrants, but Multnomah County residents are eligible for the organization’s services.

“A lot of my clients were born and raised here,” Bhell said. “It’s first come, first served. We don’t discriminate.”