The video portrays 3 immigrant men who arrived in the United States as refugees from Cambodia in the '80s. After fleeing the Khmer Rouge and settling in Seattle as children, each was drawn into gang life, and ultimately jail. According to U.S. law they should have been deported, but Cambodia did not accept deportees at the time of their sentences. After September 2001, the U.S. pressured Cambodia into changing its policy. As a result, thousands of individuals were separated from their families and returned to a land that many barely knew. Many deportees faced the prospect of paying a double penalty: having already served their original prison sentences and moved on with their lives, they now faced deportation.

Sentenced Home

Grabias, David and Nicole Newnham, dir./pro.

Center for Asian American Media

2005

2003.500.2852