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

Monday 03 May 2010

Report: Immigration Laws Put Five Million Children at Risk of Family Separation
Children in Minneapolis, Minnesota, protesting the new Arizona SB 1070 law. (Photo: Fibonacci Blue / flickr)

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.

All republished content that appears on Truthout has been obtained by permission or license.

Comments

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We wouldn't have this

Mon, 05/03/2010 - 09:36 — Today (not verified)

We wouldn't have this problem if people weren't sitting around in our system for such long periods, as unethically advised by their "civil rights" attorneys to do so. They should be speedily sent back to their westernized countries with infracstructures and democratic voting systems, public schools, hospitals, in short, for the most part, Mexico. A court already, and sensibly, ruled that children just go back with their parents. Geez, they'll grow up with dual citizenship -- what a hardship! What kind of parent with cash in their pocket to start a business and buy a house sits in a prison cell instead of agreeing to go home with their children?

The line in this article about "hurting trust" in the child welfare system is another show of the ridiculous underlying premises in all of this. What American has trust in the incompetant welfare system -- including child welfare system -- in this country?

As if we SHOULD trust them? Anyone?

What about the kids who need jobs right now in the U.S. in order to go to college?

What about the parents who have kids to support in the U.S.?

Yes, human rights are being violated, but not for the reasons this article implies. A humane deportation means it should be a speedy one.

If I came from another country and could afford to go back, and had family there to help me, and had children with me here, I'd be out of my mind not to agree to leave voluntarily with them.

The United States has a right to enforce its borders.

Tell the Mexican government

Mon, 05/03/2010 - 09:40 — Today (not verified)

Tell the Mexican government with their rich elitists who don't want to share the wealth to take some responsibility for a change. To stop telling people to come across our borders and to GTH out of our medical system.

The law has put these

Mon, 05/03/2010 - 09:47 — anonymous (not verified)

The law has put these children at risk? More like the parents have put these children at risk.

If there's no American

Mon, 05/03/2010 - 10:42 — Anonymous (not verified)

If there's no American parent, the humane thing is to speedily send people back.

Who in their right mind goes into another country illegally, takes an illegal job, and then has a lot of kids?

And when they come from an advanced nation like Mexico? I agree the Mexican government should take responsibility.

"Respect our families AND

Mon, 05/03/2010 - 10:57 — Anonymous (not verified)

"Respect our families AND GOD" --

Another lawless religious fanatic is born. Because GOD says so.

The parents should take their child home to Mexico and protest at the steps of their capital.

Is someone preventing the

Mon, 05/03/2010 - 11:38 — Ed (not verified)

Is someone preventing the deportees from taking their children?

The picture of the kid

Mon, 05/03/2010 - 18:14 — Anonymous (not verified)

The picture of the kid holding up the sign is outright exploitation to make us feel sorry for the plight of the illegals. In reality, the fault lies with the Mexican government, our overly generous immigration policies including automatic citizenship if you are born on U.S. soil to illegal immigrants, and unscrupulous businesses looking for quick profits at the expense of U.S. citizens.

A possible solution to this problem is to allow illegals to stay here only if they submit to sterilization so they can't have any more kids, in lieu of being deported.

Okay, so let's talk about

Mon, 05/03/2010 - 18:27 — David Brookbank (not verified)

Okay, so let's talk about the topic but let's try to use accurate information. These comments, as so many on the net, are often based on distorted or inaccurate information. First, calling Mexico a democratic country can be challenged by the fact that two presidential elections -- in 1988 and 2006 -- are widely accepted to have been stolen and it is ranked as the 69th most corrupt nation in the world and one of 30 countries in the world with a State Department travel warning (much of all this fueled by US massive consumption of illegal drugs). Second, Mexico is an extremely large country (11th by population, 13th by economy, and 15th by territory) but extremely poor with a minimum wage of $4/day and 40% of the population sharing 11% of the wealth. Third, US corporations and the US government have long facilitated and permitted both the entry into the US and continued presence of millions of Mexicans and Central Americans, with companies like Walmart, poultry companies and farmers recruiting "illegal" workers in Mexico while the US issued millions of tourist visas to people it knew would not return to the country given the demand for their labor here and the poor conditions in Mexico. My closest friends are undocumented Latin Americans. They came here in good faith, with explicit or implicit invitation of US business, consumers, and government, have worked hard and honestly, contribute to the Social Security general fund (which pays our retirement) and from which they can not draw benefits, and are here to stay. And I will work and fight to see that they are legalized. David Brookbank

No quarrel here with David,

Mon, 05/03/2010 - 19:05 — Anonymous (not verified)

No quarrel here with David, but let us not forget that the 2000 and 2004 elections in the US were also stolen (remember Florida and Ohio?) And also let us not forget that serious undermining of farming and other industries of Mexico under NAFTA. And corruption? Let us just say it is legalized here in the US at the highest levels.

I hate to say this, but if

Mon, 05/03/2010 - 19:08 — BR549 (not verified)

I hate to say this, but if these corporate assholes and their corresponding political brethren had handled this issue years ago, we wouldn't be in this mess. The Bracero Program "should" have rightly been allowed to continue as labor was needed, but children born to any Bracero parents would have had to be considered as Mexican citizens, ......... even where one parent was a US citizen. That would put a stop to this mess.

One of the biggest problems

Mon, 05/03/2010 - 19:22 — Anonymous (not verified)

One of the biggest problems is that US law allows illegals' kids who are born in the US automatic US citizenship, which encourages illegals to reproduce in the US and then these "new" US citizens leach off our welfare system in huge numbers. I know of no other country that has such a ridiculous citizenship law. This law needs to change ASAP.

I live in CA and the illegals are major contributors to our state's near-bankruptcy problems. The illegals bring gangs to the streets, sap our school funds, sap our state hospital funds, and crowd our prisons, costing us billions. Californians have had enough.

For a great labor

Mon, 05/03/2010 - 21:38 — David Brookbank (not verified)

For a great labor perspective on immigration, read David Bacon's piece, Should Labor Defend Undocumented Workers? at the Talking Union blog.

Meanwhile, in the comment above "One of the biggest problems" Tue, 5/4/10 at 00:22, the writer is disturbed by the 14th Amendment to the US constitution which grants citizenship jus solis to those born here. It was a way to avoid social conflict in integrating people into this immigrant society.

Beyond that, the writer claims ignorance of any other country "that has such a ridiculous citizenship law." Here is a list of them. Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Fiji, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Lesotho, Malaysia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Christopher and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela.

Several other countries, including France, Britian, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland have modified versions of the same law.

We all feel sorry for the

Mon, 05/03/2010 - 22:08 — MasOMenos (not verified)

We all feel sorry for the kids, but just having a child must never legalize any illegals. The minute illegals arrive they know they might be sent home. Those who have kids and knowingly siphon off huge amounts of taxpayer-funded services for them probably deserve the least leniency. If they are decent people they shouldn't leave them behind in the system? Let them keep the families together by taking the kids home and applying for legal residence to the US. I don't necessarily advocate this, but logically speaking, if any illegals should be more or less favored for residency shouldn't it be those who have shown themselves responsible enough to stay continent and not have kids?

Just an idea: Why not build

Mon, 05/03/2010 - 22:23 — Anonymous (not verified)

Just an idea:
Why not build mega Walmarts right on the border, actually straddling the border. In the back, on the Mexican side, employ Mexicans and in the front hire Americans. In the middle would be a sort of no man's land where conveyor belts would move product back and forth. Someone from Homeland Security would be hired to make sure everyone stays on their own side.

There no shame in being

Tue, 05/04/2010 - 08:42 — Kolosochek (not verified)

There no shame in being human, there no shame in having a family, there no shame in having children. There is a shame in hating, there is a shame in prosecuting children, there is a shame in being selfish racists like many people who left a comment here. This people are hostages of immigration laws that are like swith cheese full of holes, exceptions, exclusions. Under current immigration laws a mother of American citizen, a wife of American citizen, a daughter of American citizens cannot adjust her status. This person never had even a parking ticket. Her only "crime" was aging out of her parents immigration application. Her "crime" - being born 2 month earlier.

I agree, the children belong

Tue, 05/04/2010 - 11:37 — Anonymous (not verified)

I agree, the children belong with their parents, even if they are lawbreakers. The tone of this article reeks for corporate propaganda. The government doesn't want to break up families, but parents are using this and the corporate media like truthout as a political tool. That is child abuse.

stop automatic citizenship

Tue, 05/04/2010 - 11:42 — sawbuck (not verified)

stop automatic citizenship for children born to illegals.

they broke the law. many people in federal prison have children outside, and we don't use that as an excuse to grant leniency.

their parents knowingly broke the law to come here. they compounded their situation by having kids. the fact that they got away with it for years doesn't make it less of a crime. they should take their kids back with them.

Demand that Mexico accept

Tue, 05/04/2010 - 12:44 — brother_unknown (not verified)

Demand that Mexico accept their children.

Gangs, anyone? The

Tue, 05/04/2010 - 13:34 — Anonymous (not verified)

Gangs, anyone? The replacement model for families. It's not about solutions anyway, it's more about retaining and bolstering the paradigm that puts insurance companies at the top of the economic food chain: fear. Reason serves only to put oil on the water, but the water runs deep.

The children go back with

Wed, 05/05/2010 - 16:30 — Anonymous (not verified)

The children go back with their law breaking parents. United States needs to care for their own.

Dear Anonymous on 5/3 at

Mon, 05/10/2010 - 14:21 — Frances in California (not verified)

Dear Anonymous on 5/3 at 15:42: Who in their right mind comes to a country "illegally" and has children? How about YOUR antecedents? Only the Native Americans WHO ALREADY LIVED HERE THEN were decent enough not to make their mere existence "illegal".