Report: Immigration Laws Put Five Million Children at Risk of Family Separation

Monday 03 May 2010

by: Michelle Chen | ColorLines


Children are the hidden casualties of America’s war on immigrants, and the passage of Arizona’s new racial profiling legislation could open up countless opportunities for local law enforcement to break up families by putting undocumented parents on the fast-track to deportation.

A report from the D.C.-based advocacy group First Focus released in April outlines the possible consequences for children who wind up alone after their immigrant parents are apprehended.

According to the organization’s estimates, “over 5 million children in the United States with at least one undocumented parent are at risk of unnecessarily entering the child welfare system when a parent is detained or deported.” (Of all the children with at least one undocumented parent, a large majority are citizens by birth.)

Once inside the system, children often fall into a massive bureaucracy that can traumatize youth and parents, and when language barriers and poverty enter the mix, separated family members might have only a dim awareness of their children's fate or the legal process for keeping custody within the family. The result is that on top of the nightmare of permanent separation across national borders, these parents face especially high risk of losing parental rights under domestic law,

When a child enters the child welfare system, immigrant parents face huge obstacles in reuniting with the child. For example, if a parent is detained or deported, they cannot take part in child welfare proceedings like family court or case plan requirements, which creates the risk of permanent, unnecessary separation of the child from their parents.

It's not just the undocumented who are at risk. First Focus notes that ICE enforcement actions "have resulted in the apprehension of thousands of immigrants for minor non-criminal offenses as well as the deportation of thousands of lawful permanent residents." According to one government study, over a ten year period, an estimated 108,000 parents with U.S. citizen children were deported.

One of the most disturbing possibilities is a convergence of three huge institutions--immigration, criminal justice and child welfare--where family members are roped into a Kafka-esque bureaucratic limbo where advocating for their families could be punished by deportation. Just as SB1070 could deepen tension between communities of color and police, the collateral consequences in the child welfare system could leave all immigrant families alienated from the social service system:

For example, in one case in February 2009, a social worker operating as a private contractor for the Florida Department of Children and Families filed a cross report to the sheriff’s department on the immigration status of a Guatemalan woman who had two U.S. citizen children in the child welfare system.25 Due to the police department’s 287(g) agreement, the mother was turned over to ICE officials, and subsequently the social worker called in the grandparents of the child who were also turned over to ICE during a visit at the child welfare office. Actions such as these raise serious concerns about the effects on immigrant communities’ trust of the public child welfare system, creating a high risk of immigrant citizens not reporting suspected or severe child maltreatment.

First Focus notes that a common dilemma families faces as deportation looms is whether the children, who may or may not have legal status, will return to the home country in order to remain with the parent.

A rational solution to that dilemma is to pass legislation, such as a humane proposal offered by Rep. Jose Serrano, that would compel the government to respect the need to keep families intact during deportation proceedings. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California has another solution: deport children of the undocumented, too, even if they are citizens. Pointing to the "cost" of unauthorized immigration, Hunter recently argued, "we’re not being mean. We’re just saying it takes more than walking across the border to become an American citizen. It’s what’s in our souls, not just walking across the border.”

When migrants walk across the border, they carry with them the familiar desire to raise their families and build a better life. Those hopes, however, according to the right, have no place in the American "soul,". Yet the willingness to dehumanize whole families, including the children of your neighbors, is somehow part of our national character. For a growing segment of the population, this is exactly the kind of ideology that renders a nation soulless.

http://www.truthout.org/report-immigration-laws-put-5-million-children-risk59106

It seems the children are always the ones who pay no matter what.

it seems to be

but I would put the blame on the parent for putting their children at risk by breaking the law

Not the government for enforcing the law that the parent is breaking

Hmmm. So if the parents were bankrobbers it would be America's fault for catching the robbers and putting them in jail? and we would be soulless because we put bankrobbers in jail who had children?

It isn't the children who have been paying. They are getting free school and medical. It is the US taxpayer.

The children of this country suffering is a concern of all the people in this country.

There is no excuse for us to make children suffer unduly.

Sure there's an excuse. The government taxes and spends too much on warfare and welfare (and bailing out their corporate buddies). If people had that money in their pockets, they would likely help the poor. We can assume this because Americans typically donate large amounts to charity, even though they are over-taxed and over-regulated.

Check out usdebtclock.org sometime. All that debt is money the government stole from the productive economy, much of which could and likely would be spent on charity.

You right there.

The Illegals knew the risks when they invaded our country. The kids, if they are 18+ and legal citizens, can either choose to stay here or go with their criminal parents.

If the kids of the invader are not of legal age and are legal here, they can either stay with legal relatives or the parents can take them back with them.

If the Illegals have fake ids and/or stolen SSNs, they need to serve prison time, the deported.

I know any Citizen or legal Immigrant with a stolen SSN would get prison time.

Why reward the "special" Law breaking Invaders.

They are not only stealing from Americans, they are stealing the places of those who put up the money and time and can't come because of it.

It's all about the money. Big business make bigger profits off Illegals. Hussein and Nopalitano are breaking the law by not enforcing Immigration Law. Just like Bush.

Now we got too turn a blind eye for the children?


No way! Their parents dragged them into the mess they are in.

It isn't my fault they had kids they could not afford!

Maybe people need to be more responsible for themselves.

No sympathy here...

EXACTLY my thoughts,, how many children are seperated from american parents because of military or jail,, the parents choose that risk

Dragoness, I hope you are well and I hope you will read my reply without feeling personally attacked - I think you would know me well enough to know I could not attack you, I would however, show you an error of thought or judgement if I believed I saw it in you.


There are a number of philosophical questions involved with responding to the OP. When it comes to human ethics there is not a single incident, event, or social experience that can be addressed without a multitude of interconnected observations. Rarely will an answer to one aspect of an issue resolve even that small aspect to the agreement of the majority. Sometimes we have to keep digging way beyond the broadest scope of the narrow issue being presented.

One problem with the OP is that it makes a single law responsible for all the issues it is reporting within its written content. That is an injustice and a misrepresentation of facts and the constant reference to children and the breaking up of families is a play on emotion which distracts readers from the most pertinent issues. This article is not focused at resolving issues; its focus is to create a ‘feeling’, and to use the emotion being stirred up to gain agreement in opposition to some political or party line.

Separate the issues of what is being presented by any article.
Example: << “and the passage of Arizona’s new racial profiling legislation” >> That happens to be in the first sentence of this article. Any guess to whom the article is directed? Be aware of writing or speeches that begin this way, whether you agree with that sentiment or not it is immediately and strikingly drawing you in. Don’t go there, instead read without emotion. Consciously look for facts, look for continuity, and look for suggestions for corrective measures. If you do that you will notice they are all missing from the article.

If however, you have a very specific issue to point to within the article, it can certainly be discussed, but not in terms equivalent to the purpose of this article, which has given its opinion in the first sentence, and then followed it up with smoke and mirrors.

No problem.

My point is that children always suffer. They suffer from faulty laws, they suffer from sucky parents, they suffer always. They suffer from what adults do no matter what.

And here is another example of the children who have to suffer again.

As for the racist law in Arizona, it just shows America is still prone to racism and making it a law.

the racist law in arizona almost word for word mirrors the wording of the federal immigration statute

why is it racist for a state to insist it's officers enforce a law written at the federal level?

There are differences from the federal law and they make a big difference.

How do you suspect on sight that someone is illegally in this country without being racist or discriminatory?

Answer is that you cannot.

So it is racism condoned by law.

I dunno. I can tell on sight whether a person is a Mexican or a American hispanic. there is a cultural difference. I see em all day every day

Why did you specify Mexican or Hispanic people at all?

Am I Mexican or American Hispanic??

Back on track.

Tough beans and rice!

Illegal is Illegal. Send 'em all home and if it hurts the Pro-Illegal Alien, they can go with them.

I sure hope none of the people who are saying "send em home" regardless of their children are members of "Focus on the Family".

hmmmm, I was gonna say possibly persian,, DEFINITELY MALE,,,and definitely a gentleman

The way you can tell the difference is asking for ID when applying for federal aid, student loans, unemployment, etc. We Arizonans (not to mention other Southwestern states) had State and Local laws like this for ages-the establishment types are only crying now because they want to influence politics.

Like I said. They have a choice to stick together. They can choose to go home with the Illegal.

Do I hear an Amen to report and deport?