Author: Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity

Welcome Home, Chanthon Bun!

Post author By Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity
Post date July 1, 2020

Mr. Bun (center) with friends and supporters after his release from San Quentin. July 1, 2020.

Today, Chanthon Bun was not turned over to ICE after serving his time at San Quentin State Prison.

Chanthon Bun, a 41-year old Cambodian refugee who was sentenced to over 40 years in prison at the age of 18 and who was found suitable for parole by Gov. Newsom, was released into the care of the community. He was received by eager community members, faith leaders, and friends ready to aid in his re-entry back into society.

Chanthon Bun in San Quentin: “To live is to hope”

“To live is to hope,” says Chanthon Bun on his first day of freedom. “For me this means to never give up hope and keep on fighting.”

His experience – one of community care, not continued punishment – should be a model for the experience of everyone who is being released by CDCR. This is what it means to “treat the immigrant the same as the native born, to love them as ourselves” (Leviticus 19:34). Gov. Newsom can and must stop collaboration and transfers between CDCR and ICE today.

Ny Nourn, Community Advocate at the Asian Law Caucus, shares it best, reflecting on her own recent pardon from Governor Newsom: “I am grateful to Gov. Newsom for his pardon, and I want to ask him to extend clemency to other currently and formerly incarcerated refugees, immigrants, and survivors facing deportation like I was. California can take a step in the right direction and end the prison-to-ICE pipeline.”

Currently there are over 1000 active cases of COVID-19 at San Quentin State Prison. Immediately after his release, community members took Chanthon Bun to be tested, and he tested positive for COVID-19. If ICE had transferred him to ICE detention, he may not have survived, because he is immunocompromised, and would have further spread the illness. All transfers from San Quentin and other CDCR prisons and ICE detention must be halted immediately.

Today, Chanthon Bun is here with us. None of us are free, until all of us are free.

Downloadable PDF Statement: Welcome Home, Chanthon Bun Download

KALW radio, July 7, 2020: “San Quentin Has The Worst COVID Outbreak In California. Chanthon Bun Was There”. Ten minute interview by Ninna Gaensler-Debs.

“I ran around the building, saying goodbye to my friends. But most of them were bedridden … They were all sick. But I still came around and said goodbye to every one of them.”

San Francisco Chronicle, July 1, 2020: “Cambodian refugee released from San Quentin to community, not ICE”

Representatives with the Interfaith Movement, which is offering housing to Bun, said in a statement that Bun’s experience — “one of community care, not continued punishment” if he had been transferred to an ICE facility upon his release — “should be a model for the experience of everyone who is being released” by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. While immigrant advocates in the Bay Area said they will provide food resources and get him connected to other services as part of his “re-entry back into society,” Interfaith Movement officials said their call for Newsom to “stop collaboration and transfers between CDCR and ICE” remains.
Read the full article here

PRI/PRX The World radio program, July 14, 2020:
“He’s out of prison and has COVID-19. But he’s still sheltering from ICE.”

Weeks before Bun’s release, Anoop Prasad [a longtime immigration lawyer with Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus] and others launched a public campaign, holding rallies and phone banks to stop the authorities from handing over Bun and other inmates to ICE.

Chanthon Bun, middle, and his family shortly after arriving in the United States in the early 1980s after fleeing Cambodia and the genocide carried out by the Khmer Rouge.
Credit:Courtesy of Chanthon Bun

The PRI story was reprinted in The Week, July 18, “Prison-to-ICE transfers of immigrants scrutinized during the pandemic.“

June 30, 2020. Message supporters of Canthon Bun. #ComeHomeChanthon #StopICEtransfers #StopSanQuentinOutbreak #FreeThemAll

Updates

San Quentin State Prison faces COVID-19

Post author By Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity
Post date June 30, 2020

Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity is actively supporting the voices raised in support of the inmates at San Quentin State Prison as they face a COVID-19 outbreak within its walls.

We are co-hosts of the June 28 protest, among others, held outside the gates.

KTVU Fox 2 News, June 29, 2020: “Rally at San Quentin to release prisoners as coronavirus cases surge”
San Francisco Chronicle, June 28, 2020: “As San Quentin’s coronavirus cases spike to 871, protesters want inmates freed”
- “They have no freedom to wash their hands, use soap or socially distance,” said the Rev. Deb Lee, who used to teach tai chi at the prison. “This is taking away their dignity.”
Oakland In True Colors, photo album of the June 28 protest. “SAN QUENTIN & COVID. #INMATELIVES #CARENOTCAGES. #STOPSANQUENTINOUTBREAK“
June 26 statement from the San Quentin Inmate Family Council

Rev. Deborah Lee of Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity speaks outside the gates of San Quentin prison on June 28, 2020. Photo by Jonatan Garibay.

Accompaniment NEAT Stories

Family Accompaniment: Audenis and Olimpia

Post author By Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity
Post date June 30, 2020

Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco began accompanying Audenis, his wife Olimpia, and their baby while Audenis was in detention, with letters of support to the court and with accompaniment in court. As soon as he was released, they enthusiastically partnered with The Episcopal Church of St. Mary the Virgin and together jumped in to Virtual Accompaniment, excited for the opportunity to continue to walk alongside this family they had grown to love.

In March 2020, they saw Audenis, Olimpia, and their baby for the first time over Zoom for their initial team meeting, and have since connected on a weekly basis during the difficult times of COVID-19.

Besides connecting the family with furnishings for their apartment, affordable housing options, and medical care, they have grown a trusting and strong relationship. They are even planning a social distancing picnic!

Team members interviewed Audenis and Olimpia to lift up their voices and share their story with their congregation, so that all can grow and learn in accompaniment together.

Here is their story:

Audenis and Olimpia met in their home country of Honduras. At the young age of approximately 18, Audenis had the courage to leave an abusive father, and went to live with his aunt in San Francisco. He worked in restaurants to support himself and his family. Even as a teenager, he was more concerned for his family than himself, and kept little of his earnings. Although had lived as an exemplary life for many years, Audenis was detained by ICE on August 28, 2019.

With interfaith community support and a packed courtroom, he was granted bond on February 24th, 2020. Olimpia had become a lawyer in Honduras, and never lost touch with Audenis. When she came to the United States a couple of years ago, she too spent time in a detention center. Naturally warm and optimistic, she did not let even detention undermine her. She remembers her time there as positive and spiritual:

“I had a lot of faith. I took it as a time to be with God. … It was in His hands.”

Still, Olimpia does speak of the struggles that followed.

“Afterwards, once [Audenis and I] were together, we both went through serious tests. There were times when we were sleeping on the floor, or that we were hungry. We suffered a lot.”

Audenis had a more difficult experience in detention.

“I still wake up with nightmares about that time. Every time I remember it, I get the urge to cry.”

Despite his harrowing experience, Audenis remains the nurturer who worries about his family. Olimpia suffers from a heart condition, while his beloved aunt was infected with COVID19.

“My worry now is that [Olimpia] has not been able to complete the treatment for her heart, and there are moments when she is just walking and she gets tired. I am also worried for my aunt, who is the person who has most helped me, who is sick. And because of the pandemic, we have to be especially careful for Olimpia’s condition.”

They do get some help from their church, but it is not enough because Audenis suffered a work injury and can’t go back to the restaurant.

When Audenis was released from ICE detention on February 25th, many friends and relatives from his Latinx community, knowing him as a loving, trustworthy person, put together the $10,000 bond. Without much money themselves, they returned the love and care that Audenis had always given them. Their feelings when Audenis was released?

Olimpia: “Very happy.”

Audenis: “Very happy, happy because I knew that I would be able to help my wife with taking care of our daughter. It had been six months since I had last held my daughter, since I had last hugged her.”

Olimpia: “Audenis was going to be back with us, to go with us everywhere we used to go, to be able to share experiences with us, to play with our daughter. He is extremely loving with her and also with me. We were going to have those special moments as a family.”

Their goals and hopes? Olimpia says:

“We want to work so our baby can have a good life, a good education, and everything she needs. We want to be healthy and always be together.”

This story was compiled from an interview with Congregation Sherith Israel, Audenis, and Olimpia, and has been edited by Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity to share in our Nueva Esperanza Newsletter in June 2020.