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A FOURTH OF JULY SALUTE TO LADY LIBERTYcamp: Sunheng worked at the local CARE office and did translations in the camp library; her brother served as an interpreter in the hospital. itGtiN in twr uGEi;; tA#u*Finally, in February of 1981, after nine months of waiting, Sunheng, her sister and brother, her infant nephew David Than and his little cousin Janet Mey %u2014 bom in the refugee camp %u2014 boarded a plane for America.On their arrival in New York, Eng Ly found them an apartment near her own in Midwood. Sunheng immediately enrolled in a three-month English course at the 23rd St. YMCA in Manhattan. After that she passed a high-school equivalency test and was able to enroll in Manhattan Community College in September.%u201cIt was a big change,%u201d she remembers, both because the American system of open education differed so markedly from the French-style schools she attended in Cambodia, and because she decided to study computer science %u201cbecause I heard it was challenging and there were jobs available ir the field.%u201dAfter two and a half years there she transferred to York College in Queens, where she obtained her B.S. degree in computer science on June 3. Now she is continuing in the part-time computer job she got while a student, and she is looking for a full-time job.Life with a dozen relatives from three generations in the Midwood house Eng Ly and her husband bought in 1983 is crowded, and Sunheng has found job-hunting in New York frustratingly difficult. But in surveying the last decade of her life, she finds she has few regrets.%u201cWhen I was at the commune sometimes I would cry because I didn%u2019t have any home at all. I thought that my future was at an end.%u201dNow she has %u201ca new life,%u201d the prospect of supporting herself, and the occasional leavening of a Cambodian New Year%u2019s festival or party. From time to time at these events she and her sister meet people they knew long ago in Pnomh Penh whom they had given up for lost. The Khmer Rouge years are but a distant nightmare.%u201cAmerica is still the land of opportunity,%u201d says Eng Ly with a broad smile. %u201cEven though you can%u2019t look for gold ore any more.%u201dSunheng put it more simply: %u201cI feel I have been bom again.%u201dSince 1975 More Than750,000 Southeast AsiansHave Sought Refuge In U.S.Figures on the number of Cambodian refugees and immigrants in the City and in Brooklyn are hard to come by. The U.S. government has designated 14 private relief agencies in New York City alone as authorized sponsors for Southeast Asian refugees, and most of the agencies resettle their charges throughout New York State.New York, says each agency is assigned a certain number of cases by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. After receiving a file on a refugee from the government, agency workers locate any family members the refugee has in tliis country and solicits their help. If there are no family members the agency must find an apartment for the refugee.After the refugee arrives, agency workers help the newcomer apply for a Social Security card, register their children in school, and locate jobs or job-training opportunities. Ordinarily the refugee will have three to six months of instruction in English before arriving, but often further language study is required.Figures provided by Kelly showed that there have been two major waves of Indochinese refugees: the first in 1975, immediately after the fall of U.S.-backed governments in Cambodia and Vietnam, and again in 1980-81, after Vietnamese invasion forces ousted Pol Pot%u2019s regime in Cambodia. Altogether about 786,000 refugees from Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos have entered this country since 1975. %u2014 Arthur KroeberSpirit o f Liberty Still Shines:Problems In HisHomeland StillHaunt SalvadoranBY ROB TAYLORFourth of July celebrations have little meaning for 29-year-old Jose Luis Rosa and his mother Julia, Salvadorans who came to the United States seeking a safe haven from the political turmoil and violence of their native Central American country.Julia, who arrived in New York in 1983, remembers spending previous Independence days seeing hotdogs at Nathan%u2019s on Coney Island. Jose, a former journalism student at El Salvador%u2019s National University, relates the national holiday to his own experience as a Salvadoran national who would like to return to his place of birth, but is afraid that his political beliefs will get him arrested.Jose remembers some of the lines from a poem about the Statue of Liberty and the United States %u2014 %u201cgive me your tired, your poor%u201d %u2014 and wishes that the U.S. government would recognize that he is %u201cstruggling to be tree ^SITUATION DEPLORING%u201cThe situation for Central Americans in this country is deploring,%u201d he said, during an interview June 24 in his mother%u2019s Williamsburg apartment. %u201cMany people are without rights and are like slaves. It%u2019s time Continued on Following PageSunheng Than (Phoenix/Kirk Photo)When / was at the commune sometimes I would crybecause I didn 7 have any home at all I thought m yfuture was at an end. America's the land of opportunity.According to Eva Kelly of the Refugee Data Center in Manhattan, Congress each year sets a ceiling on the number of refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos that may enter this country. For the current fiscal year (ending September 30) that ceiling is 37,000. All persons entering under this quota must first have resided in a refugee center outside of their country of origin %u2014 in most cases, these people come from refugee camps in Thailand. An additional 8,500 persons coming directly fromVietnam may also be allowed in the U.S. this year.To gain entry to the U.S. refugees must usually meet one of three criteria: they must have family here to support them; they must have been associated with the U.S. government in their native countries; or they must have been officers in the ousted governments of their countries.Lang Ngan of the International Rescue Committee, one of the 14 officiallydesignated refugee placement agencies inHappy 100th BirthdayStatue o f LibertyLADY MOODYDISCOUNTS SIZE 8-52< 5 '(m o d i ebn/w tingC b^drie.L o c a t e d o n A t l a n t ic A v e n u e S in c e 1 9 4 5LARGEST SELECTION OF MIDDLEEASTERN FOODS & GIFT PRODUCTSIN THE U.S.A.251 A V E U 218 A TLANTIC A V E 5th AVE & 82nd ST 1 8 7 - 1 8 9 A t l a n t ic A v e .(718) 37 2 -3 4 48 (718) 797-1900 (718) 745-1551 (7 1 8 ) 6 2 4 - 4 5 5 0 %u2022 (7 1 8 ) 6 2 4 - 5 7 6 2H appy Independence D ayW. & J. DIXOM, INC.L IC E N S E DPLUMBING AND HEATING 71 Atlantic Ave. MAin4-0424 MAin4-0880HAPPYBIRTHDAYLADYLIBERTYShawn.igJk FREE LOCAL DELIVERY* * 8 fe > 141 SKVENTH AVF- PARK SLOPEJoy. Peace & LibertySTOP BY FOR OUR LIBERTY WEEK SPECIALSn : ^ 4 . c - ____J H l | i I I M M I V I l U t l l l l l g V . U .157 A tla n tic Ave., B rooklyn Heights(718)643-8550D ScottOFIN E W INES & LIQUORS318 Court St. TR5-5530July 3,1986, THE PHOENIX, Pag* 19