Phal Soks family escaped Cambodia in 1979, fleeing a deadly Communist regime after the Vietnam War. They became refugees in the U.S., trading life in a war-torn country for massive social upheaval and a new start in Southern California with little support. When Sok was 16, his father died. Feeling even more lost, he turned to the streets. By his 18th birthday, hed been convicted of armed robbery.

Now 36, Sok who was born in a Thai refugee camp, and has spent most of his adult life in prison faces possible deportation to Cambodia. But hes never been there, not for a single second, he says.

I would be in a country Ive never known, Sok told HuffPost. I still have to try to wrap my head around that. Its still a very real possibility... I think it would be traumatic.

Soks fears are not unique. In fact, late last year, more than 100 Cambodian refugees were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Decades ago, these people had fled from countries shattered by war in hopes of starting over. Now, their lives are hanging in the balance once again. A few weeks later, ICE targeted another Southeast Asian refugee community this time residents of Vietnamese descent .

This dire situation is a sobering reminder of a larger, longstanding issue. Many Southeast Asian refugees to the U.S., going back decades, were given little support once they resettled. With few resources to help them get on their feet, many ended up following difficult paths: dropping out of school, committing gang-related or otherwise serious crimes and later facing deportation. Experts call this the migration-to-school-to-prison-to-deportation pipeline.

With more aggressive ICE campaigns under the Trump administration, activists fear even more people will be funneled into this system. Amid crackdowns on both legal and illegal immigration, advocates are calling for more awareness to this issue, and better community support for people who never had a proper chance to start anew.

Struggles in the Southeast Asian community

Asian-Americans are often stereotyped as star students nailing the SATs and heading to the Ivy Leagues. But statistics on the Southeast Asian community, a population born from refugees and resettlement, show a story that runs counter to the model minority myth.

Data reveals that the group has low levels of educational attainment. Compared to other races, Southeast Asian-Americans have some of the highest dropout rates in the country, and the majority of them have not attended college. About 34.3 percent of Laotian adults lack high school diplomas, as do almost 40 percent of Hmong and nearly the same percentage of Cambodian adults. Thats in stark contrast to the general U.S. adult population, in which almost 90 percent of people finish high school or get a GED certificate.

A great many refugees have also had contact with the criminal justice system. In the years following the mass resettlements caused by the Vietnam War, imprisonment of Southeast Asians ballooned. The Asian-American and Pacific Islander prisoner population increased by 250 percent in the 1990s . In areas with high concentrations of AAPI, the criminalization of the immigrant community was especially evident: Laotians and Vietnamese, for example, were among the top four most arrested groups in 1990 in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Unlike most criminal offenders, refugees whove been through the justice system face eviction from American society. Some grapple with the prospect of going back to the very countries they fled. Southeast Asian immigrants are three to four times more likely to be deported for old criminal convictions compared to other groups of immigrants. Despite most being legal residents with green cards, at least 15,000 Southeast Asians have received final orders of removal over the past two decades.

Many of these issues can be traced back to the scant tools provided to Southeast Asian refugees in the years following their resettlement, making it all the more difficult for families to assimilate and ascend in American society.

A dearth of resources bars refugees from the American Dream