Trump Admin to Deport Cambodians After Country Refused to Take Back Their Nationals

President Trump’s administration will begin deporting Cambodian nationals after placing sanctions on the country for refusing to take back their illegal foreign nationals.

According to VOA News, roughly 70 Cambodian nationals will be deported from the United States in the month of December, a win for Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, which has been trying to get the foreign nation to take back its nationals.

ICE says that in total there are more than 1,900 Cambodian nationals living in the U.S. that are eligible for deportation. Out of those 1,900, about 1,412 of the Cambodian nationals are convicted criminals.

In September, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it would place sanctions on Cambodia for refusing to take back its nationals.

A State Department official told VOA:

The U.S. “believes that each country has an obligation under international law to accept the return of its nationals who are not eligible to remain in the United States or any other country.”

Though open borders organizations have claimed that the deportation of the Cambodian nationals is unjust, ICE spokesman Brendan Raedy says that all illegal aliens and criminal foreign nationals are subject to deportation.

“The bottom line is that any alien removed no longer had any lawful status to remain in the United States,” Raedy said.

“International law obligates each country to accept the return of its nationals ordered removed from the United States,” Raedy told VOA.

“The United States itself routinely cooperates with foreign governments in documenting and accepting its citizens when asked, as do the majority of countries in the world,” Raedy said.