Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained Providence resident Chansareth Hong on Wednesday, July 22. Despite pushback from several community groups, Providence City Council, Mayor Brett Smiley, and Governor Dan McKee, Hong was sent to the Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls sometime in the early afternoon on Wednesday. In a statement to The Providence Eye, the Department of Homeland Security labeled Hong a “criminal illegal alien from Cambodia.”
Over 100 people rallied at ICE’s Warwick field office on Jefferson Boulevard to support Hong as he attended his scheduled check-in, warning that Hong is the primary caregiver for his elderly mother and his nine-year-old, non-verbal autistic son.
“Chansareth Hong’s family is one of the first Cambodian families to be part of that first refugee resettlement wave in the late ‘70s,” said Suonriaksmay Keo, president of the Cambodian Society of Rhode Island. Keo said that while Hong’s case is public, there are many private stories of people in local Asian refugee communities who are being separated through immigration cases. “We’re losing a lot of folks all the time.”
Hong Taken to Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls
The Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM), alongside advocates from the Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance (AMOR), Alliance of Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education (ARISE), SISTA Fire RI and more, gathered outside the ICE facility chanting “Free Chan Now!”
PrYSM organizer Jenni Nguyen read a statement from Hong’s brother, who could not attend the rally because he was picking up Hong’s son while his father was detained.
“If our brother was to be deported, the hardships that it would cause on our family would be unbearable,” said the statement prepared by Hong’s siblings, who are all U.S.-born citizens. “As our family’s primary caretaker for my mother and his non-verbal, autistic son, his absence would absolutely devastate them, and us.”
According to a petition demanding that the Rhode Island’s governor and attorney general tell ICE not to detain Hong and give him due legal process, the nine-year-old’s mother passed away in 2025 and Hong’s own father passed away in June of this year.
“We’re trying to grieve over the loss of our father this same week not even about a month ago… it’s just pretty bad,” said another one of Hong’s brothers, who attended the rally. “We feel a great sense of relief with you all here standing with us for what is right, against something that is so wrong.”
Hong has attended routine immigration check-ins for close to 30 years, but in April, was given an ankle monitor and informed he would be detained soon. On July 22, Hong entered the building for a check-in around 8:30am with his paperwork, a lawyer and the written support of over 2,000 petitioners, as well as Governor Dan McKee, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley and most of the Providence City Council. Two City Council members refrained from signing onto the letter: Jo-Ann Ryan of Ward 5 and James Taylor of Ward 8.
“In recognition of these circumstances, I urge you not to inflict irreversible and devastating trauma on Mr. Hong and his family,” said McKee. “The fair, just, and necessary path is to allow Mr. Hong reasonable time to present his case through counsel while he cares for his dependent son and mother.”
At around 3 p.m., Nguyen announced that Hong had called from the Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls, the only federal detention facility in Rhode Island that filed for bankruptcy earlier this month. The Department of Homeland Security said Hong was detained over his criminal history.
“[Hong’s] criminal history includes convictions for drug trafficking, a crime for which he was sentenced to eight years in prison,” said the statement from DHS provided to The Providence Eye. “Hong was issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge on Oct. 1, 1999.”
The statement said “nearly 70% of ICE arrests are of illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S.” This claim has been debunked by multiple news outlets, with the number being closer to around 50%. Of those who are convicted or charged with crimes, the vast majority are non-violent. Hong’s family said he maintained a clean record for the past 30 years since pleading no contest to a charge of possession with intent to deliver.
Cambodian and Refugee Communities in Providence Speaks Up
Keo said Hong’s family was one of the first families to attend the Khmer Buddhist Temple in Providence, the first temple of its kind to be built in the U.S. Monks at the temple were some of the few who were able to escape the Khmer Rouge regime that killed nearly two million people.
“There were different refugee resettlement waves in Providence, Rhode Island, after folks were fleeing refugee camps and genocide in Southeast Asia, particularly in the West End of Providence,” said Keo. “Cambodian families were one of the first groups to resettle in Providence after funding was made to start having people resettle in places outside of like Lowell, Massachusetts and Long Beach, California.”
Chansareth Hong was born in Thailand to Cambodian refugee parents, but traveled to Providence as an infant in 1978. Keo said deportations have long been a problem for Cambodian, Vietnamese and Hmong communities in Providence.
“Even before ICE was created in 2003, our families were already losing their loved ones, our community members in the ‘90s through judge decisions and the [Immigration and Naturalization Service],” said Keo. Most of INS functions were distributed to ICE, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in 2003. “They’ve invited our families, refugees to come resettle here, but then not help them with getting citizenship or letting them know about the next step after a green card.”
In Providence, one in every three people are foreign-born. Refugee Dream Center Project Coordinator Night Jean Muhingabo attended the rally as a fellow refugee who has only been in the U.S. for 15 years, while Hong has lived here for almost 50.
“If it happens to him, it can happen to my family from Rwanda, to my mom,” said Muhingabo, who also sits on the Providence Public School Board. “I see it all the time, ICE coming and picking up our kids, at the Refugee Dream Center, and families don’t even want to show up to receive services because they are scared.”
Muhingabo said signs barring ICE from entering public property have done little to slow down arrests, with some agents even entering school parking lots.
“How can we expect a kid to succeed in Providence public schools when they are often scared [that when] they come home, Mommy is not going to be there?” said Muhingabo. “We have seen cases where ICE would come and pick up the mom from work, then at the end [of the day], we don’t know what to do with the kids.”
Activists said that they will continue to support Hong’s case by seeking bond and pursuing all legal remedies to keep him in Rhode Island.
“We thank you all for coming and showing up for Chansareth,” said a young family member of Hong. “We did what we can, and we proved that our community is still as strong as ever.”
Eric Halvarson is a City News Reporter for The Providence Eye.
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