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Akha Chronicles Akha Refugees The Akha Of I came to know of the Akha of Sacramento quite by accident, though it
had occurred to me that some Akha might come into the What might have been a straight forward process ended up being a
matter of dealing with a lot of “Lords of the Poor” in In addition to finding out that Akha families HAD come into the My report at the time follows. Rough notes on the investigation into the Akha refugees and Akha
trafficked into Akha Woman X, she said that was her name, but she needed an Akha name,
so the spirit woman in She was much the same look as my wife, she called me, told me that she
had seen my wife’s picture and that she thought that it looked like her
and wanted to talk, and thus unfolded the story of all the Akha who had been
brought to the US illegally as stolen children by various groups who were already
in the US, smuggling in the children of other people, never to know who they
were or where their parents, brothers and sisters had gone. There are no
orphans in Akha, everyone is related to someone, so anyone with an Akha they
claim is an orphan is using a western word for a western lie.
We talked. I wondered what the missionaries were doing with all those
children, how many special favor adoptions there were? We now knew that there were many Akha smuggled into the Akha Refugee and Trafficking Document Initial project started in October when I got news that Hmong were being relocated to Although I had heard of the project when it was announced in In October I began distributing a flyer, announcing our search for
Akha speaking refugees in the event that some had come in with the Hmong. This hunch was confirmed when an African American worker at the
Bowling office of the Sac County Dept. of Human Assistance office told us
there were two Akha families who had come in there. I then began searching for other details in the case of Akha refugees
in the area and trying to confirm that the Akha families were in fact
receiving adequate services including language. I began going to all agencies related to the refugee projects and
leaving them with contact flyers offering free translating service 24/7 in
Akha language. I contacted numerous refugee related NGO’s and government
agencies. These were my experiences and impressions as I worked on this project
over five months in the ****** I talked to the following people, not necessarily in order. It became very apparent that all these people were communicating and
agreeing to cover this all up. First I sent emails to a whole network of refugee agencies, which are
non profit, and they all answered that they had never heard of the Akha but
would let me know. This went as far south as There is also a task force on refugees that is run or organized in
part by Roy Kim who is listed below. His org is SETA and receives funding from the state and possibly
federal by that means. ***** Names and contacts: he works for World Rellief. Steve Maganini is with the Sacramento Bee.
Despite the fact that there is a good sized Hmong
network in Steve Maganini shows little awareness or
sensitivity to ethnic issues or data. He also runs a private photo website
with his photographer. So there is an issue of data mining the Hmong via his job that has secondary purposes of profit
etc. Apart from the news they generate, Steve appears to have little first
hand knowledge of the Hmong or involvement. They
have however presented him with data for stories over a long period of time. He is sort of the Hmong writer. But, he was in emails that were cc’d
to me, but denied any knowledge or access to the Akha refugee families,
though he had access to take many photos of them in the group, on arrival to
Sacramento and as well as going to the camp, which is of course public. He
also published photos of the refugees in their homes in However, I don’t know if he knows who the Akha families are. He
has repeatedly asked me to talk about it, since he has no connection to know
the Akha story without talking to me, but since I saw his name in emails
designed to keep the story secret, I have also refused to give him
information. Ted Vang is in IRC in David Thao is the IRC for Dave Mowery is the deputy director for the Sac. County dept. of human
assistance. He works in the office of Lee Saunders, the director. He said he
was very concerned with the situation and wanted to get to the bottom of it. Then
he became very angry a few days later and denied the whole thing etc. He referred me to Rhonda Noller who I also
spoke with. I also spoke with Ms. Trend Vu (vietnamese I
believe. ) Tues She said she would look into it and then also clammed up. She said
that they had a contract with Carmazzi Inc to
provide translation when in fact they didn’t and also when they had the
Akha identified with Akhan off the Carmazzi list which is a South African language. We are the only listed translator for Carmazzi
that I know of, there wasn’t a listing previously. Someone at the
county called for service after that then canceled when they found out i was the translator. Carmazzi I am also the translator at Language Line for Akha. I later met Timothy Moua at the Elk Grove Hmong church. Mr. Xeng
identified him as a supervisor at I later met another Hmong man who introduced
himself at Elk Grove church as a supervisor at I contacted Tom Riley of California Health Care Interpretting
Association. I contacted Hmong Women’s Heritage
Foundation and they also denied the knowledge of Akha here. But one man there
referred me to Opening Doors Foundation in Sac which told me they also did
not know of any Akha refugees, although by this time the entire network was
talking that they didn’t think it good to let anyone contact the Akha
(can be deported etc etc etc.)
I talked to Maurine Hueng, the Director of
Opening Doors. She was quite abrubt, but as I was
leaving did ask me about donations and money for her work which was quite
funny. I contacted Sacramento Health Rights hotline. They knew nothing they
said. I contacted UC Davis translating department where a man (hmong) told me he knew a Mien man on 36th st who could speak Akha who took me to the man on 19th.
They invited me to a new year’s party where I gave out cards and one of
them found its way to Ms. X I talked to the Fed Office of Human Rights 415-437-8310. Filed case. Laura Coronado is now handling that case. Case number is 0532358 I talked with State office of Civil Rights but they said that since
the case was already at Fed level they would have to wait. They knew about
the case. Everyone knew about the case. I called to talk to the Laura Hardcastle at
the State Refugee Health Program. When she got on the line she was laughing
hysterically, and then started out by saying “Do you mean to tell me
you have come down from Oregon JUST to find TWO Akha families?” in a
very ridiculing tone. 916-552-8268 She referred me to Debbie Salazar Debbie wrote me, said that she would let me know if there was any Akha
come in the clinic. This was all rubbish by this time of course, and she said
that she had posted a sign in the clinic. Interested by what was going on I stopped by, and the secretaries all
knew me, got really careful when I identified myself. When Debbie came out she was all over herself talking about how
exciting it was to learn about the Akha and that no one had expected such a
huge ruckus and blah blah blah.
She pointed to a sign that said Akha translation available but noteably it was facing the inside way on the window where
staff could see it but clients could not. Minor detail. Debbie said that maybe the County had told the Akha about our services
but told them not to contact us? This was a very strange comment. She
continued to deny she knew of any Akha. She stated that maybe language
service in another language was ok, and they really didn’t need Akha
language or Akha medical information. But it is noteworthy that all the people in the county deny they have
seen the Akha save Florin road, but then they all talk on email that the akha have to be hid, at the same time, so which is it? Downstairs at the clinic, there is a
emergency clinic. When I handed the intake officer a flyer, he immediately
appeared to know who the Akha were and asked me if it was a 24 hour free
service which I informed him it was. So he apparently had some previous contact. The Mien community speaks quite openly of the Akha children from
before, so it is odd that no one in agencies claims to have heard of this
either. Radio The Hmong community continued to be very
tight lipped about the Akha. No Akha in Lao Family Sac. said they knew of no Akha, I
talked to Hmong recent refugees there. Mien people
also contacted me. I went to Lao Family Fresno said that the “akha
want to remain private” but did not deny there was Akha in Roy Kim is the program officer at SETA. 916-263-4335 Roy Kim sent me out memos email style that showed the cc’s
of all the people who were in the loop. Steve Maganini
was also on the list. 916-263-3800 Roy Kim email. rkim@delpaso.seta.net
He said there were no Akha and that he would let me know if he saw
ONE. He hosted the refugee forum, but I was later told by the state woman
that it was discussed, the Akha refugees, and decided that to allow them to
admit they were Akha would get them deported when she asked me why I wasn’t
at the forum. I told her I had other case work to do that day. So basically she admitted that the Akha were here, smuggled, trafficked in and that the state would help keep this
illegal situation secret. I called the state Attorney General’s office and talked to Mr.
Lewis Verdugo. Civil and Patricia Gonzalez. They said they were waiting on the fed case. Don Clement is the San Fran regional supervisor for IRC. Inter.
Resettlement Committee. He said that IRC couldn’t tell who was who when they came in
which of course is obviously not true. By this time everyone knew I was looking regarding these Akha
families. I talked to Mr. Johnson in Bagkok, with the
program for resettlement at the Then I was contacted by Lester Healley who
is the director of the Bowling Green Dept. of Human Assistance office where
the Akha were coming in. He is African American. He appeared to have some simpathy
for the situation. He told me that he had heard about all
this ruckus and wanted to close the loop and get the Akha families
help. He said he was identifying them and would call me back. 916-875-3565 Linh Do at Sac County Dept. of Human Assistance at
Bowling rd then called me back and was almost in tears and said she didn’t
know how to tell the Akha families because they spoke Akha and she couldn’t
speak to them in Akha. She was a temp at Lester Healley’s job
when he is out of the office. 916-875-3842 I spoke also to Laura Leonelli in the NGO
South East Asian Assistance. She said she had not heard of any Akha. She was
in communication with Ms. Debbie Salazar. So everyone was talking back and
forth about the Akha who did not exist. The morning after Lester Healley talked to
me, David Mowery the Deputy Dire. of Dept. Of Human Asssitance called me quite angrily and said that Lester
didn’t know what he was talking about and there would be no discussion
of the Akha let alone “closing the loop” and that he would not
say anything and that in reality they didn’t even have any Akha. So I
asked him why he was calling me to tell me about Akha who didn’t exist? I talked to the Governors office and Sen. Boxer and Feinstein. 916-445-2841
Gov. But I was referred to Ms. Twang Gnu from the Gov. Office and she told
me that the Akha didn’t have any rights because they were put down as Hmong illegally and that the state didn’t have to
give them any services, didn’t have to report them and didn’t
have to give them translation service either and that attempts to help them
would only get them deported. She said this specifically to me. “At the
refugee forum (roy kim)
we discussed the Akha and really in attempting to help them you are going to
cause them to be deported so you shouldn’t attempt to help them.”
!!!!! She is the person for Refugee Issues in the Gov. Office!!!!! I talked to her twice about this. She knows about the US Dept. Of
Health and Human Services Complaint, and referred to it. Another number for her is 916-654-4356 I talked to her last on this
number. She is the Refugee Programs Administrator at the state level. another possible spelling Ms. Thuan Nguyen
That was Feb 18, 2005 I also talked to the News and Review and they said they would look
into the story but also backed off. 916-498-1234 Interested in liberal views,
the underdog etc, they say, they are in fact very special interest. As much
as the next guy. I contacted Lao Family in But when I called his son said maybe he would want to talk to me, I
left a number. But when I called back his son said I had the wrong number. So word spread after I contacted Lao Family in Certain ethnic families told me they bought Akha kids, brought them to
the He cried. For a year after coming to US. Was 5 or 6. Ms. X says there are more than a hundred stolen children here, maybe 300, that “each ethnic family brought some”. Yet her only relationship to these ethnics suggests that she is an
outcast in that community. That the Akha are not integrated in that community
and are in need of services. The Akha appear isolated, told that they can’t talk, under
watch, lock and key, feel afraid to claim who they are but are degraded in
the ethnic society. I met one older Akha man who was a soldier for US and has a Lao
Veterans Card, he is 65 years approx. I don’t know his address but know the ethnics who know him. It is impossible that no one knows these children are here. And the two new families as well. I went to Burbank High School on Florin road and the white woman was
shocked by this story but the Hmong lady
immediately put a cap on it and said that they couldn’t give any
information to the Akha without their parents consent (abortions ok?). It appears to me that there is no clear cut process by which all orgs
or charities pass information to immigrants and refugees. I can see no level
of transparency. It appears to me that the refugees are isolated, that only
certain people get to know and that any untoward events can happen when this
is the case. It also appears to me that certain powerful minorities have access and
control of other minority groups, without those groups having access to
broader information in the community. While the Hmong are allowed and directed to
coordinate with Lao Family, the Hmong supervisors
are not offering this same benefit to the Akha who have come in with Hmong names. Thus it also seems the Hmong are involved in
trafficking of peoples. One contact in One can suggest that Akha children were exploited and brought in with
the recent refugees if two entire families were able to make it and obviously
could not speak Hmong, which is what the woman at
Bowling Rd Dept. of Human Assistance told me. It is clear that the Akha are being deprived of their rights. I informed Homeland Security of this situation but they seem to be
very poorly organized, no body cared and no body returned my calls. I even
called their hotline, but once again, no reply. So if someone is in the country illegally, posing as who they are not,
trafficked, told they are who they are not, and Homeland Security is not
interested??????? There is the need for a Federal Hotline on trafficking in people. There needs to be a transparent clearing house on all refugees. She says she knows her cousin. Seems Akha kids don’t do very
well here. The Akha, as a group are taboo to talk about which means that they
have been a target group, when you find Akha here but no one will talk about
them. So how many are in *** The Akha story in She spoke slowly, like she was processing, like she didn’t know
what to say, or was being way too careful like she knew too much already, but
it was the weirdest conversation I have had in a while. Mr. Brad Joyce was out, he was in Immigration Investigations. Ms. Emily claimed that if Akha were here as Hmong
it was a case of fraud. She didn’t know what to say that 300 might be
here with the Mein but in a case of fraud she didn’t
think there was a stature of limitations on the Fed issue. Tom, Mein, he didn’t have any more informatoin either, but had a contact at the Sac. Bee, I
think maybe Magagnini and someone else.
916-394-9859. No body knew anything. Dr. Pou helped me get an announcement on the
radio, and I don’t know what else he could do. His wife knew the details
of the case, but was limited in what she could tell me and I appreciated what
they had told me already that alerted me to this situation. I talked to Ms. X, she sometimes called and sometimes not, so I lost a
lot of time. Friends didn’t return calls so I wasn’t using a lot more
time there. I couldn’t keep giving to the non performers for free. Ms. X was suppose to give me a pic of her when small and one when big. If she would keep courage I didn’t know, but it was crucial to
the Akha in this area to pull a group together. Anyway, the situation was discouraging, there wasn’t anyone
standing up for the children, just a bunch of lifer dogs, the two Akha
families were definitely no priority. The US Attorney’s task force on trafficking looked like just
that, lots of talk but no action, blah blah blah blah. Well, it simplified my life, I learned a lot,
and now on to other things. I would try to pull a case together for the
Sacramento Akha but it didn’t look like it would be easy. More and more
Akha would havce to come forward. Ms. X knew a lot. A lot of Akha and then some. When one is first handling a case of this kind one makes mistakes, and
I had. Maybe friends were on the case already. I had given them her phone
number, name, etc. I wouldn’t repeat that. I did them up a report, then they didn’t have time to return
calls, maybe busy, but so was I. And they got paid. Everybody was like they were in the least capitalistic country in the
world, living off the trough like nothing should be tied to performance, and
they were all colluding anyway, one got the feeling. More Disturbing news Ms. X tells me that the ethnics know a lot about
the Akha being trafficked into Ms. X situation is that her theft parents made her to feel that she is
the bad person and that she vicitmized them, but
this is in fact not the case. But this adds to her reluctance to tell her story, in that she has
been made to feel she is bad and that it is not a legitimate story at all. The ethnic trafficking to End Have a comment or question? Like to know more? Send
me an email at akha@akha.org |