Incarcerated by immigration authorities and facing potential deportation for months, Vibol Thou, a 43-year-old Malden father of six, is home for Christmas.
“It’s surreal right now,’’ said Thou over the phone on Tuesday.
He had just finished some last-minute holiday shopping at a local mall and carried his sleeping 2-year-old son, Ace, to his car. Ace has been stuck to him “like Velcro’’ since his wife, Gerrilee, picked him up Monday evening at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, R.I. He struggled to describe his emotions, eventually landing on: “It’s unbelievable.’’
Since July, Thou, a literal man without a country who holds no citizenship of any state but has lived in New England for decades, had been in the custody of immigration authorities who were trying to deport him. They claimed he was unlawfully in the country after an immigration judge issued a removal order against him more than 20 years ago. His attorneys were steadfast that he was not deportable and that he was unlawfully detained. Last week, a judge terminated his immigration proceedings.
His case threw his family into financial disarray as he was the household’s breadwinner. Behind bars, he was unable to run his asphalt paving business. In recent months, his wife, Gerrilee, said she was down to her last $100 and avoided driving the family’s truck because it cost too much to fuel. She credits the charity of others, some of them strangers, in keeping the family fiscally afloat while Thou’s case wound through the immigration system.
Indeed, the Thous’ legal fight to have Vibol released and stay in the US attracted significant community support. Gerrilee organized a letter-writing campaign calling for her husband’s release. Dozens of supporters — nurses, doctors, relatives, church ministers, youth sports coaches, contractors — attested to his character.
The Thous are among the thousands of Massachusetts residents caught in the maw of the nation’s immigration system. Federal immigration authorities were on pace to file a record number of deportation cases in Massachusetts immigration courts this fiscal year.
Thou was born in a refugee camp in Thailand to Cambodian parents who were fleeing the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge. He moved to the United States at age 4. He grew up mostly in Lynn. Facing homelessness as a teen, he never finished high school. Eight of his siblings were killed by starvation or war in Cambodia, according to his wife. Thou himself has never stepped foot in that country.
For Razeen Zaman, a staff attorney for the Asian American Legal Defense Education Fund who represented Thou, his case exemplified how “merciless’’ the American immigration system could be, particularly if you’re a noncitizen with criminal convictions.
“Basically, if you’re not 100 percent perfect you can’t stay in the United States, which is a really high standard to meet and one I would say most US citizens wouldn’t be able to meet,’’ she said. “People aren’t perfect.’’
Messages left with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement were not immediately returned on Tuesday. They have until Jan. 21 to seek an appeal, although it’s unclear if they will do so. For the time being, Thou is wearing an ankle monitor.
Zaman said ICE “tried really hard to deport’’ Thou.
Thou’s case is complicated. Thou has a handful of years-old criminal convictions to his name, including a gun-related charge that he denies. Zaman argued that none of the charges cited by ICE in Thou’s case are deportable offenses.
Over the phone on Christmas Eve, Gerrilee Thou said their daughter cried when Vibol came home on Monday. Gerrilee found that she was able to enjoy Christmas music again. Previously, Vibol’s detention and the family’s uncertain future cast a pall over any holiday cheer.
“It is a true Christmas miracle,’’ said Gerrilee over the phone on Tuesday.
Gerrilee plans on making a roast beef Christmas dinner and visiting relatives on Wednesday, including their eldest son, 22-year-old Vibol Jr., who is blind, deaf, can’t walk, is nonverbal, and stays in a pediatric nursing facility. Over the summer, the younger Vibol was at death’s door. He was given last rites before he was taken off a ventilator at a Boston hospital. But miraculously, according to Gerrilee Thou, he survived and is doing better.
“We’re complete again,’’ she said on Tuesday.
Danny McDonald can be reached at daniel.mcdonald@globe.com. Follow him @Danny__McDonald.
