Rally on Independence Mall to Change Deportation Laws

Dozens of people rallied on Independence Mall on Monday night, hoping to change deportation  laws that they say are unfair. 

KYW's Jim Melwert reports that Sok Hoeun Khol's son, Ly Hov Kohl, is being deported, 26 years after coming here as a refugee from Cambodia, and 2½ years after serving a 12-year prison sentence for his part as a lookout in a deadly robbery.

"Since he's been out he's just been nothing but a positive force for young people in our communities that are facing the same issues that he did when he was younger."

Rally organizer Mia-Lia Kiernan says Kol is one of several Cambodian immigrants recently rounded up across the country.  She says Immigrations and Customs Enforcement is ignoring dangerous criminals, instead deporting citizens she says have already paid their debt to society:

"They did their time just like anyone else, and the proportionality of punishment and deportation is not just, especially without any kind of due process."

While some may find the argument less than compelling, immigrant rights groups say rather than mandatory deportation, cases should be viewed on an individual basis.