City Council is calling on immigration authorities to release a 44-year-old Philadelphia man who has been detained for months and is at risk of being deported to a country he has never visited.
In a resolution adopted Thursday, lawmakers also urged the city’s Congressional delegation to “champion welcoming immigration policies,” amid President Donald Trump’s promises to remove millions of undocumented people from the country.
“This is bigger than just ‘One’,” said Councilmember Nicolas O’Rourke, the author of the resolution. “His detention is part of a broader system designed to disappear people, to make their suffering invisible and to shield the truth from the public.”
Sereyrath “One” Van was born in a Thailand refugee camp to Cambodian parents who fled in the wake of the Khmer Rouge genocide. At 4 years old, he immigrated to Southwest Philadelphia and was a legal permanent resident until 2021, when a judge revoked his status following a drug dealing conviction.
Van was detained in August during a meeting with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, as family members and immigrant advocates demonstrated outside the agency’s Center City office.
He has been housed since at Moshannon Valley Processing Center, an ICE detention facility in Central Pennsylvania. He could potentially be deported to Thailand or Cambodia; he has never stepped foot in the latter.
“It’s been over seven months,” said Nancy Nguyen, executive director of VietLead, a Southeast Asian community group that has organized a campaign to support Van. “And if not for the community pressure, if not for the legal strategies, working with Free Migration Project, One might already be gone.”
He was released from state prison in 2023 after serving nearly six years for narcotics distribution. An immigration judge last month upheld an earlier ruling that the offense was serious enough to warrant deportation.
“This is a case that exposes a deeper systematic injustice, where immigrants and refugees are being doubly punished for past convictions with devastating consequences like indefinite detention and family separation,” said Adrianna Torres-García, deputy director at Free Migration Project, which has been defending Van in court.
Van has taken responsibility and expressed remorse for his crime, but he does not believe he should be banished from the United States.
“You send me to Cambodia, that’s like triple punishment,” Van told Metro in August. “I did my time. I know I’m going to get deported, but now you’re trying to deport me to a country I’ve never been to. It’s kind of like, how much punishment do I deserve?”
Representatives from VietLead, O’Rourke’s office and Juntos, a South Philadelphia-based Latine organization, visited Van and other locals locked up at Moshannon on Friday.
O’Rourke said he and state Sen. Nikil Saval have asked for a tour of the facility; ICE denied the request, stating that the lawmakers could meet with Van in the visitation area, he added.
“This selective access is the opposite of transparency,” O’Rourke said. “We need to see and understand the broader conditions that our incarcerated constituents are forced to endure at Moshannon.”
ICE did not respond to a request for comment or reply to questions about Van’s case.
O’Rourke noted that it was reported, by the Inquirer and NBC10, less than two weeks ago that a section of Philadelphia’s Federal Detention Center in Center City is now being used to house ICE detainees.
At a news conference following Thursday’s Council session, advocates said they want local, state and federal elected leaders, including Mayor Cherelle Parker, to speak up and do more to protect immigrants.
“We need those leaders to be courageous, too,” Nguyen said. “It is not enough what has been happening. It is far from enough.”
Resources for local immigrants
Nationalities Service Center: 1216 Arch St 4th floor; 215-893-8400; nscphila.org
HIAS PA: 123 S Broad St.; 215-832-0900; hiaspa.org
Welcoming Center: 211 N. 13th St., 4th floor; 215-557-2626; welcomingcenter.org
Esperanza Immigration Legal Services: 4261 N 5th St.; 215-324-0746; esperanza.us
