Kin Await Him : Fate Offers Its Hand to Orphan Boy

Phidel Hun was an infant 11 years ago when he grasped a hot iron left unattended by his mother in their home in Cambodia.

His family, now living in Bellflower, said the young mother grieved over her baby’s terribly seared hand. The thumb and pinky finger were fused together in a grotesque pinch across the palm.

Now, however, it is with great excitement that the family talks of the accident that left the youngster crippled.

Had he not been injured, Phidel would never have been sent to another city to stay with his uncle, a doctor, shortly before communist troops overthrew Cambodia in 1975. His parents are believed to be among the thousands of government workers who were executed by the Khmer Rouge.

And, if not for his deformity, Phidel, who disappeared a short time later, would never have been recognized by relatives who, in 1984, found the cheerful, grubby orphan fending for himself in a rough-and-tumble refugee camp in Thailand.

Now, Phidel’s damaged hand has figured prominently in his life again.

Two-Year Effort Succeeds

On Thursday, jubilant family members learned that their two-year effort to get him released from the camp 9,500 miles away has succeeded.

With the urging of Sen. Alan Cranston’s office, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service on Monday granted the crippled boy a special “humanitarian parole,” allowing him to come here, even though none of his relatives are eligible to act as his sponsors.

At the Bellflower home of his uncle, Hanyou Gau, a quiet family lunch turned to a scene of joy after the news was heard.

“Oh! My hair’s standing up right now!” cried Gau, who has raised Phidel’s two older brothers as his own children. “This is so exciting! It is the best news I have had in many, many months.”

“I am very happy to be his mother,” said Gau’s wife, Chhay. “I wait for it so long . . . and I love a big family. Everything is ready for him.”

“Me too! Me too!” chimed in Stephen, the Gaus’ 6-year-old son. “I like to have my cousin back.”

INS officials said it is not yet known when Phidel will be flown here. However, the days of waiting matter little to a family that has found every door closed to it since 1984.

Gau had been told that there was no way to overcome INS regulations that prevented him from sponsoring Phidel, because Gau is not an immediate relative, such as a father or brother.

And Phidel’s brothers, Delux, 15, and Pich, 13, who escaped with adult relatives in 1975, could not sponsor him, because they are under 21 and are not yet U.S. citizens.

The family’s plight became a cause celebre for refugee specialist Livinia Limon of the Los Angeles-based International Rescue Committee, who encouraged the Gaus to apply for humanitarian parole and to seek help from California Sens. Cranston and Pete Wilson.

Cranston’s office responded to the family’s letter, and a few weeks ago asked the INS to give the case immediate attention.

Elmy Bermejo, Cranston’s immigration specialist, said she had crossed her fingers that Phidel’s application would be granted. Such paroles can be difficult to obtain, she said, but they felt Phidel’s story was particularly stirring.

“I was really excited when I called the boy’s uncle to tell him that he might be able to get a parole, because of the boy’s hand,” Bermejo said. “The INS was very responsive and quickly asked for more information about the boy.”

Health Problems

Verne Jervis of the INS Humanitarian Parole Division, said such paroles are up to the discretion of the agency and are most often granted to people with health or mental problems who have no legal way of getting into the United States.

Last year, he said, 788 humanitarian paroles were granted nationwide and 606 were denied.

Gau said his family was thrilled to get the offer of help from Cranston. Phidel’s uncle said he was so overcome with gratitude, that he switched his voter registration from Republican to Democrat, Cranston’s party, “because I think now they care more about the people.”

“I told the congressman I am very thankful to the people of the United States for bringing us here,” Gau said. “We have prospered, and we are very grateful for anything that can be done. I say that from my heart.”

For Phidel’s grandmother, grandfather, two brothers, three uncles, four aunts and many cousins, the months of effort have been filled with great despair and great hope.

In March, before they learned about the possibility of a humanitarian parole, Gau and Phidel’s grandmother, Siem Kim Tan, flew from Los Angeles to Thailand to see the boy for the first time.

There they found a boisterous, barefoot, tough-talking 11-year-old--a street-wise survivor whose past years are a mystery to the family.

“As you know, the first time is always tears,” said Gau, who works as a refugee counselor for the Catholic Welfare Bureau.

“He was brought out to us in a little hut, and he just come and hug me, hug me, and then ask me if he can have a ball. He ask, ‘How about shoes too?’ I said, ‘What kind of shoes?’ And he said, ‘Soccer shoes!’ ”

Pinched Uncle

His grandmother cried softly as she remembered how Phidel seemed as he peppered his talk with swearwords and pinched his uncle to prove to him that he was strong.

“I feel so sorry for him, because nobody took care of him and raised him the right way,” she said in Bellflower. “Even though we have been here 11 years, we still have the same customs, we still respect each other and pass it on.

“We are a family and we will pass it on to the boy and set an example. Every time I think of him, I pray to Buddha to help him.”

After little more than an hour, the poignant reunion was cut short by Thai officials, who had monitored the visit. Phidel had to be left behind.

Now, looking ahead to Phidel’s arrival here, Gau said his family is prepared for quite a challenge, but one they will be happy to meet.

The family believes that the boy has been indoctrinated by the communists, as were many children who were separated from their parents and left behind during the mass exodus from Cambodia. They do not know who raised Phidel, if anyone, because the uncle with whom he was living is long missing and presumed dead.

Moreover, the boy does not speak English and has scant understanding of what the United States is like, Gau said.

During the reunion, for instance, Phidel asked why Gau could not send him more money. When Gau explained that he supports a large family in Bellflower, Phidel asked why his teen-age brothers were not working.

“He said, ‘Why don’t you put them to work so they can send me money?’ ” Gau said. “He doesn’t understand United States. He said when he gets here, he is going to work hard right away and make a lot of money.”

Student Programs

Phidel’s brothers were toddlers when they escaped from Cambodia. Now they are both enrolled in gifted student programs at their schools. They say they are looking forward to helping Phidel learn English and the “California style.”

“I guess there is a bond in spirit with him,” said Delux, a student at Paramount High School. “It will be more like a forgotten best friend, someone you haven’t seen in a long time. . . . I just assume it would turn out right.”

Chhen Kong, another of Phidel’s uncles, who was a doctor in Cambodia and works as a postman here, said that more than anything, the family wants Phidel to have a shot at the American dream.

“Our daughter gets straight A’s in school, and other family members are doing very well too,” Kong said. “Hanyou’s (Gau’s) youngest sister teaches math and engineering at UC Irvine, and we have much success. We don’t want that little kid to miss what we have had.”