Immigration Law Clinic Halts Deportation, Draws Media Coverage

The UC Davis School of Law Immigration Law Clinic succeeded in stopping the deportation and gaining the release of a client who spent 84 days in detention. The story drew coverage in the Davis Enterprise that included quotes from Dean Kevin R. Johnson and Professor Holly S. Cooper ’98, co-director of the clinic.

“There’s a great deal of fear and trepidation because of the kind of policy the Trump administration is following — and its rhetoric about immigrants,” said Dean Johnson. “We’ve faced the rescission of DACA, raids at 7-Eleven — and now, what people thought unheard of — an arrest in Davis.”

Rottanak Kong was taken into custody in Davis last year as part of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) crackdown on Cambodia refugees. Arrested on October 19, he was scheduled for deportation December 18 on the basis of a felony conviction for joyriding as a young man. After an immigration attorney in the Bay Area referred Kong’s family to the Immigration Law Clinic, Cooper and clinic students filed motions to get a temporary stay on the deportation order and worked to reopen his case. Cooper and Marcelle Obeid ’19 traveled to the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona for a hearing in January and succeeded in dismissing the deportation order. Kong was released January 10.

Professor Cooper said that thanks were due to numerous Kong family members, community activists, political leaders, and members of the King Hall community, including Ann Block ’86, Benjamin Issakhrian ’17, Melanie (Young) Kim ’13, Katie Ruhl ’07, Joel Stern ’99, Martha Jaime, Immigration Clinic administrative assistant, and former Immigration Clinic Supervising Attorney Raha Jorjani.