San Diego man faces uncertain future after being detained by ICE
SAN DIEGO (NBC, KYMA/KECY) - As the Trump administration plans for the expansion of immigration detention facilities, one San Diego man, who is married to a U.S. citizen and has been trying to fix his status for years, is among those being held with an uncertain future.
For months now, the Otay Mesa Detention Center has been at or near capacity.
As the Trump administration ramps up immigration enforcement, they've moved to prioritize detentions: Taking a lot more people and holding them in custody as their cases proceed. This includes people who may have been given grace before, like Chuong Dong.
"Our family just needs a chance. He just needs a chance," said Christy Huynh, Dong's wife.
Huynh says her husband came to San Diego as a child, a refugee from Vietnam in 1981. She says he had a difficult home life, and in 1989, he pled guilty to robbery after stealing two speakers at age 19.
He spent time in prison where she says he turned his life around. He now works inspecting hospital and health care construction projects, with his immigration case long on the government's back burner.
"He is trying to fix his status. We've been fixing his status for over 15 years," Huynh shared.
Last week, they went to his annual check in with ICE, which he's been doing for 25 years. This time, he was detained even as she tried to explain he has a pending case.
"He didn't care. He didn't care...One of the ICE agents was laughing, smiling, giggling, think that it's funny, you know? To them, it's like destroying people, families...it's something that they can laugh at," Huynh expressed.
"They could have removed him back in 1999. They could have removed him in 2000," said Adam Klugman, Dong's lawyer.
Klugman filed a motion just this month to vacate the old conviction, arguing he was never told the immigration consequences of his guilty plea.
"If you would have translated the concept of deportation in Vietnamese to him, his native language, he still would not have understood what that meant," Klugman explained.
Dong was taken to the Otay Mesa Detention Center, which is one of several privately run facilities and the federal budget passed last month has billions earmarked to expand them.
The Washington Post reports an internal ICE road map shows capacity will more than double to over 100,000 people by January.
"Anywhere he goes, everybody loves him," Huynh remarked.
For Huynh, an American citizen, one of those thousands is her everything.
"He has his family here. He has his kids here. He has his community, he's tied to his community here. I mean, how could they took him in like cold-hearted like that?" Huynh spoke.
Huynh and Klugman both say they're not sure what the government's plan for his removal is, how long he will be held, or when he may be deported.
