By Scott Smith
Record Staff Writer
December 04, 2008
MEMORIAL
Friends and colleagues at the Gospel Center Rescue Mission will hold a memorial service at 1 p.m. Saturday at the facility located at 229 E. Church St.
STOCKTON - Buntha Nhep, a Stockton drug counselor who feared deportation and certain death in his native Cambodia where he was a one-time freedom fighter, has died. He was 58.
Nhep overturned his motorized wheelchair the day before Thanksgiving at the Gospel Center Rescue Mission in Stockton, where he lived and counseled homeless addicts. In the accident he hit his head, which led to his death Saturday, said Ada Brown, a treatment program director at the Rescue Mission.
"I'm sad, but I'm peaceful because I know he's peaceful now," Brown said. "He hurt so bad."
Nhep lived a life riddled with personal struggle amid global strife. In the early 1970s, he fought against the brutal Khmer Rouge in pitched battles throughout Cambodia. In 1976, he fled to the United States and eventually settled in Stockton.
Divorce sent Nhep into depression and drug use, which landed him in jail, he said in a 2006 interview with The Record. He cleaned up and became a registered addiction specialist only to find out that federal immigration officials wanted to deport him as a noncitizen legal resident because of his drug conviction.
A diabetic, Nhep said he feared certain death in Cambodia either from a lack of medical care or at the hands of his decades-old political enemies. In the past two years, he had his right leg below his knee and a left toe amputated.
"I'm gong to die not too long," he said in the 2006 interview of his pending deportation. "Probably not too long at all. No dialysis over there."
The University of California, Davis, School of Law's Immigration Law Clinic took up Nhep's case and most recently had brought it to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal, said Raha Jorjani, a supervising attorney at the law clinic.
Jorjani said Nhep carried the threat of deportation on his shoulders to his death. He had no money and no family in Cambodia to care for him. He lived his last years in a room at the Rescue Mission, she said.
Working with recovering addicts gave him a sense of purpose, Brown said, adding that he was long ready for his physical pain to end.
"He said, 'I'm done with this. I just need to move on,' " Brown said. "I asked him if he was ready and he said, 'I'm ready. I can't stand the pain anymore.' "
Contact reporter Scott Smith at (209) 546-8296 or ssmith@recordnet.com.
Record Staff Writer
December 04, 2008
MEMORIAL
Friends and colleagues at the Gospel Center Rescue Mission will hold a memorial service at 1 p.m. Saturday at the facility located at 229 E. Church St.
STOCKTON - Buntha Nhep, a Stockton drug counselor who feared deportation and certain death in his native Cambodia where he was a one-time freedom fighter, has died. He was 58.
Nhep overturned his motorized wheelchair the day before Thanksgiving at the Gospel Center Rescue Mission in Stockton, where he lived and counseled homeless addicts. In the accident he hit his head, which led to his death Saturday, said Ada Brown, a treatment program director at the Rescue Mission.
"I'm sad, but I'm peaceful because I know he's peaceful now," Brown said. "He hurt so bad."
Nhep lived a life riddled with personal struggle amid global strife. In the early 1970s, he fought against the brutal Khmer Rouge in pitched battles throughout Cambodia. In 1976, he fled to the United States and eventually settled in Stockton.
Divorce sent Nhep into depression and drug use, which landed him in jail, he said in a 2006 interview with The Record. He cleaned up and became a registered addiction specialist only to find out that federal immigration officials wanted to deport him as a noncitizen legal resident because of his drug conviction.
A diabetic, Nhep said he feared certain death in Cambodia either from a lack of medical care or at the hands of his decades-old political enemies. In the past two years, he had his right leg below his knee and a left toe amputated.
"I'm gong to die not too long," he said in the 2006 interview of his pending deportation. "Probably not too long at all. No dialysis over there."
The University of California, Davis, School of Law's Immigration Law Clinic took up Nhep's case and most recently had brought it to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal, said Raha Jorjani, a supervising attorney at the law clinic.
Jorjani said Nhep carried the threat of deportation on his shoulders to his death. He had no money and no family in Cambodia to care for him. He lived his last years in a room at the Rescue Mission, she said.
Working with recovering addicts gave him a sense of purpose, Brown said, adding that he was long ready for his physical pain to end.
"He said, 'I'm done with this. I just need to move on,' " Brown said. "I asked him if he was ready and he said, 'I'm ready. I can't stand the pain anymore.' "
Contact reporter Scott Smith at (209) 546-8296 or ssmith@recordnet.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment