For Immediate Release: December 14, 2018
Contact: apala@apalanet.org
Washington, DC - Omni Air International, a charter international air service, is contracted to operate the deportation flight of 46 beloved Cambodian community members on December 17, 2018 - the largest deportation flight of Southeast Asian refugees in United States history. Omni has asked pilots who are members of the Airline Professionals Association, Teamsters Local 1224, and flight crew with the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA to staff this deportation flight.
APALA National Executive Board Member and APALA San Francisco Chapter leader Stan Kiino asserts, “It is inhumane to deport our brothers and sisters who have grown up here, worked here, and planted roots here - most of who have never set foot in Cambodia. As AFA, CWA members, we did not enter this profession to separate our AAPI brothers and sisters from their families and communities.”
APALA National President and appointee from the National Education Association Monica Thammarath stated, “These deportations are shameful. Just this past September, Sene Sem, a union brother from Teamsters Local 251, was arrested for deportation after coming home from work in front of his 10-year-old daughter and mother-in-law. Can you imagine? Cambodian workers who have worked their whole lives here in the United States deserve more. We will fight for these families to stay together.”
APALA Minnesota Chapter Founding Member, Minnesota 8 organizer, and AFSCME Local 8 member Jenny Srey adds, “After arriving in the 1980s as infants fleeing genocide, Cambodian American refugees like Sene and my husband and Carpenters Union Local 322 Ched Nin often have never set foot in Cambodia and no longer have surviving family there. It is illogical and unethical and yet the Trump Administration has ramped up their targeted deportation of Cambodian refugees this past year. It is our responsibility to remind the Administration that these communities are a part of the American fabric and to deport them would be to tear apart at the heart of our value for family and community.”
APALA Massachusetts Chapter member, educator, and activist Loan Dao adds, “We are alarmed that the United States is potentially setting a precedent for other nations to follow suit and allow for the deportation of thousands more refugees. The Vietnamese and U.S. governments are in talks to potentially modify the 2008 repatriation agreement. A new agreement might force the Vietnamese government to accept pre-1995 refugees from the Viet Nam War, leaving 8,500 Vietnamese refugees vulnerable to deportation. This past summer, the Administration also used visa sanctions as a way to pressure Laos, the only Southeast Asian country with no repatriation agreement with the United States, to sign a similar repatriation agreement. We must organize to stop these invasive tactics that aim to break up our communities. We stand in solidarity with all refugees.”
We stand with union families and Cambodian American community members to demand Omni Air International to stop the deportations. We call on Omni Air International to stop separating families and remove itself from further collaboration with ICE.
We call on APALA members, AAPI workers, and all those who fight for AAPI working families to show up and take action in solidarity with these Cambodian Americans who are being targeted for deportation.
If you would like to take action against these deportations, please sign this petition, call Omni Air International using the directions below, and amplify this issue by posting the graphics below to encourage your networks on social media to also take action. We need as many people to call as possible!
Contact: apala@apalanet.org
Washington, DC - Omni Air International, a charter international air service, is contracted to operate the deportation flight of 46 beloved Cambodian community members on December 17, 2018 - the largest deportation flight of Southeast Asian refugees in United States history. Omni has asked pilots who are members of the Airline Professionals Association, Teamsters Local 1224, and flight crew with the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA to staff this deportation flight.
APALA National Executive Board Member and APALA San Francisco Chapter leader Stan Kiino asserts, “It is inhumane to deport our brothers and sisters who have grown up here, worked here, and planted roots here - most of who have never set foot in Cambodia. As AFA, CWA members, we did not enter this profession to separate our AAPI brothers and sisters from their families and communities.”
APALA National President and appointee from the National Education Association Monica Thammarath stated, “These deportations are shameful. Just this past September, Sene Sem, a union brother from Teamsters Local 251, was arrested for deportation after coming home from work in front of his 10-year-old daughter and mother-in-law. Can you imagine? Cambodian workers who have worked their whole lives here in the United States deserve more. We will fight for these families to stay together.”
APALA Minnesota Chapter Founding Member, Minnesota 8 organizer, and AFSCME Local 8 member Jenny Srey adds, “After arriving in the 1980s as infants fleeing genocide, Cambodian American refugees like Sene and my husband and Carpenters Union Local 322 Ched Nin often have never set foot in Cambodia and no longer have surviving family there. It is illogical and unethical and yet the Trump Administration has ramped up their targeted deportation of Cambodian refugees this past year. It is our responsibility to remind the Administration that these communities are a part of the American fabric and to deport them would be to tear apart at the heart of our value for family and community.”
APALA Massachusetts Chapter member, educator, and activist Loan Dao adds, “We are alarmed that the United States is potentially setting a precedent for other nations to follow suit and allow for the deportation of thousands more refugees. The Vietnamese and U.S. governments are in talks to potentially modify the 2008 repatriation agreement. A new agreement might force the Vietnamese government to accept pre-1995 refugees from the Viet Nam War, leaving 8,500 Vietnamese refugees vulnerable to deportation. This past summer, the Administration also used visa sanctions as a way to pressure Laos, the only Southeast Asian country with no repatriation agreement with the United States, to sign a similar repatriation agreement. We must organize to stop these invasive tactics that aim to break up our communities. We stand in solidarity with all refugees.”
We stand with union families and Cambodian American community members to demand Omni Air International to stop the deportations. We call on Omni Air International to stop separating families and remove itself from further collaboration with ICE.
We call on APALA members, AAPI workers, and all those who fight for AAPI working families to show up and take action in solidarity with these Cambodian Americans who are being targeted for deportation.
If you would like to take action against these deportations, please sign this petition, call Omni Air International using the directions below, and amplify this issue by posting the graphics below to encourage your networks on social media to also take action. We need as many people to call as possible!
For Facebook: Graphic- Download
One week before Christmas, 46 Cambodian American families will be permanently separated by the largest deportation flight of Southeast Asian immigrants in US history. The flight will take place aboard an Omni Air International plane chartered by ICE.
Sign this petition: https://action.18mr.org/omni-air-stop-deportation/
Then tell Omni Air to stop separating immigrant families. Call 918-836-5393 and demand a cancellation of the 12/17 flight and an end to the company’s collaboration with ICE. #StopOmni
For Twitter: Graphic- Download
A week before Christmas, 46 Cambodian community members will be torn from their families and deported on an @OmniAir plane. Call Omni at 918-836-5393 and demand a cancellation of this flight and an end to the company’s collaboration with ICE. #StopOmni
Click to Tweet
On 12/17, @OmniAir will carry out the largest deportation of SE Asian immigrants in US history. Omni can stop separating families by canceling this flight and ending its contract with ICE. Sign this petition to #StopOmni: https://action.18mr.org/omni-air-stop-deportation/
Click to Tweet
How @OmniAir can stop separating families before Christmas:
1. Cancel the 12/17 deportation flight to Cambodia
2. End future collaboration with ICE in deporting SE Asian refugees
Sign this (https://action.18mr.org/omni-air-stop-deportation/) and Call 918-836-5393 to end deportation flights. #StopOmni
Click to Tweet
One week before Christmas, an @OmniAir plane chartered by ICE will permanently separate 46 families in the Cambodian American community. Omni can stop this flight and keep families together. Call 918-836-5393 and demand an end to Omni Air’s collaboration with ICE. #StopOmni
Click to Tweet
One week before Christmas, 46 Cambodian American families will be permanently separated by the largest deportation flight of Southeast Asian immigrants in US history. The flight will take place aboard an Omni Air International plane chartered by ICE.
Sign this petition: https://action.18mr.org/omni-air-stop-deportation/
Then tell Omni Air to stop separating immigrant families. Call 918-836-5393 and demand a cancellation of the 12/17 flight and an end to the company’s collaboration with ICE. #StopOmni
For Twitter: Graphic- Download
A week before Christmas, 46 Cambodian community members will be torn from their families and deported on an @OmniAir plane. Call Omni at 918-836-5393 and demand a cancellation of this flight and an end to the company’s collaboration with ICE. #StopOmni
Click to Tweet
On 12/17, @OmniAir will carry out the largest deportation of SE Asian immigrants in US history. Omni can stop separating families by canceling this flight and ending its contract with ICE. Sign this petition to #StopOmni: https://action.18mr.org/omni-air-stop-deportation/
Click to Tweet
How @OmniAir can stop separating families before Christmas:
1. Cancel the 12/17 deportation flight to Cambodia
2. End future collaboration with ICE in deporting SE Asian refugees
Sign this (https://action.18mr.org/omni-air-stop-deportation/) and Call 918-836-5393 to end deportation flights. #StopOmni
Click to Tweet
One week before Christmas, an @OmniAir plane chartered by ICE will permanently separate 46 families in the Cambodian American community. Omni can stop this flight and keep families together. Call 918-836-5393 and demand an end to Omni Air’s collaboration with ICE. #StopOmni
Click to Tweet
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