Friday, April 06, 2012
The Obama administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration has swept up significantly more adults whose children were born in the U.S., potentially breaking up thousands of families.
In just one six-month span last year (January to June), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported 46,486 parents of U.S. citizens. This total represents almost half of the entire number deported (100,000) in the ten-year period from 1998 to 2007.
“No solid information exists to measure what happens to deported parents’ children,” wrote Susan Ferriss of iWatch News. “Some leave with their parents, others remain here with family members or on their own and some may go into foster care.”
News of the rising deportation of parents upset some Democratic Latino lawmakers in Congress, who accused the Obama Administration of misplaced priorities.
Representative Charles Gonzalez of Texas, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, noted that undocumented parents “comprise a labor pool that is vital to many American businesses.”
Gonzalez added that ICE should focus on deporting people with serious criminal records. “I urge ICE to use its policy of prosecutorial discretion to prioritize deportation proceedings … and then deport individuals that pose a danger to our communities.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
To Learn More:
About 46,400 Immigrants Claiming U.S. Children Deported In Six Months (by Susan Ferriss, iWatch News)
Deportation of Parents of U.S.-Born Citizens (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) (pdf)
Border Patrol Deported U.S.-Born Daughter of Fourth-Generation U.S. Citizen (by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov)
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