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Cambodians in Ark City finally receive American citizenship

By FOSS FARRAR
Traveler Staff Writer

Phen Ven fled Cambodia with his family in 1979 during the nightmarish Khmer Rouge reign. The family ended up in Arkansas City, sponsored by the First Presbyterian Church.

Church members and Ven's coworkers at ADM Milling Company's West Plant where he got a job helped the family settle into a new, quieter life. Twenty-seven years later, the family reached another milestone in their life in America: They became U.S. citizens.

Ven, his wife, Vet, and a son, Vorn, were sworn in as naturalized U.S. citizens in a ceremony that took place March 9 in Wichita. The Ven family members were among 222 people representing 41 different countries who were sworn in at the ceremony, Ven said.

Ven's daughter, Savoeun Ven Douglas, is soon to follow. Last week, she passed a citizenship test and will be naturalized in the near future.

"My dad told me I had to," Douglas said. "I never did feel like I didn't want to. It's just something we had put off."

The Ven parents' third and youngest child, Charley, was born after they arrived in the United States, so he was born an American. Last April, he completed five years in the U.S. Marines, serving two tours of duty in Iraq. He works at the Dillon's Store in Arkansas City.

"It means a lot to my family," Charley Ven said of his parents becoming naturalized U.S. citizens. "They've been waiting so long and finally decided to take the test."

Phen Ven said he had some help from fellow employees at the ADM Milling West Plant on West Madison Avenue. Ven is a 26-year veteran worker at the mill.

Fellow workers tested him on sample questions regarding U.S. government and history, he said. They quizzed him during work breaks and lunch at the plant.

He studied 100 sample questions before taking the citizenship test last November, Ven said. Test examiners could pick from such questions as: What is the Supreme Law of the land? Who did the United States declare independence from? Who is the head of your local government?

"They picked out six questions for me," he said. "I got all right."

His wife and son answered most of 10 questions correctly to pass the test, Ven said.

Passing the test was quite an achievement since Ven spoke no English when he arrived here 27 years ago. He took night classes in English at Cowley College, he said.

"He's very hardworking," Joe Woodard, plant manager, said. "He's pretty well liked by everybody."

Woodard, a 27-year veteran worker at the mill, remembers when Ven first started working at the West Plant.

"He started as a mill operator on rotating shifts," Woodard said. "Later, he was transferred to warehouse packaging and loading on the day shift."

Mill work is tough and used to be even tougher, he said.

"When he started, workers would take 140-pound bags from a chute onto their backs, but now most of that operation is automated," Woodard said.

Ven didn't talk much to his children about the family's experience fleeing Cambodia in the late 1970s his daughter, said. She was only a year and a half old at the time and has no memories of the old country.

The family fled from Cambodia to a refuge camp in Thailand, where Ven applied to come to the United States under the sponsorship of Ark City's First Presbyterian Church, she said.

"From overhearing him talk on the phone, I know they had to travel at night, fleeing from Cambodia," Douglas said.

Above: Phen Ven, left, his wife, Vet, and son, Vorn, were sworn in as naturalized U.S. citizens March 9 in Wichita.