SYCAMORE TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Vannak Sok is screaming.
He grabs his mother’s shoulders and turns her ear towards him. he shouted again.
Chanie Heng doesn’t speak much English and lost most of her hearing soon after immigrating to the United States. That’s why her son is screaming.
That is also one of the reasons Mr Heng could be deported.
Ms Heng met her husband in Cambodia, where they are now citizens. Charles Clay was a Marine veteran who considered military service in the Vietnam War. The two married in 2007, and Henn moved to Cincinnati on a fiance visa.
“I became her tall American hero,” Clay once said in an affidavit reviewed by WCPO. “We immediately fell in love with each other.”
However, when Heng applied for permanent residency, immigration officials in Cincinnati refused to issue her a green card based on her marriage. They said she was interviewed inconsistently and did not speak English. Clay did not speak Khmer. Khmer is the language Heng grew up speaking in Cambodia. But their family said they bonded over “the price being right” and riding motorcycles.
His sister told WCPO that they were always smiling together.
Still, immigration authorities concluded that their marriage was fraudulent and was used only to evade immigration laws.
“I don’t know why they don’t believe it,” Sok said.
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Charles Clay and Chanie Heng married in 2007. Clay met Heng in Cambodia.
Mr Heng’s family is now suing to have the judgment set aside. A spokesperson for the Immigration Bureau and the agency’s attorney handling Heng’s case both declined interview requests, citing the lawsuit.
In a ruling last month allowing the case to proceed, a federal judge criticized the government for the “dizzying complexity of immigration law.”
Marcy See, assistant professor of public law at the University of Miami, studies federal courts. Mr. Shi reviewed some of the court documents at WCPO’s request.
“My first reaction was that this is the same scary and complicated process that many people I personally know have gone through,” she said. “That seems very difficult.”
Mr Heng’s health is deteriorating and he is at a loss. Her husband passed away in 2018.
“It’s heartbreaking to see what’s going on,” said Charleston Wang, an attorney for the family. “He died knowing he could not give his wife what he wanted: American citizenship.”
If Mr Heng loses his case, government authorities could begin deportation proceedings.
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Chanie Heng cries as she talks about her late husband Charles Clay. If he loses his lawsuit against Cincinnati Immigration Services, Henn could be deported.
“She’s really sad,” Sok said. “And she’s praying in her room.”
The American flag used at Clay’s funeral is folded neatly on a dresser in her bedroom. For Heng’s family, the flag doesn’t represent the same thing it did when they moved here.
“What else does the government want from us?” Clay said in a sworn statement before his death. “I love my wife and I love her children.”
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