Deportation: Is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today the expulsion of foreign nationals is usually called deportation, whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation. Deportation is an ancient practice.
Between July 1, 2010, and Sept. 31, 2012, nearly 23 percent of all deportations—or, 204,810 deportations—were issued in the United States for parents with citizen children, according to federal data unearthed through a Freedom of Information Act request. The federal government conducted more than 200,000 deportations of parents who said their children are U.S. citizens in a time span of just over two years.However total number of deportations of parents may be higher because some mothers and fathers fear telling authorities that they have kids. An additional group of parents whose kids are not U.S. citizens are not reflected in the numbers.The Obama administration is guilty of failing to honor its pledge to make parents of children born in the United States less likely to be deported.It's almost impossible to know the full scope of the problem. Child welfare departments and the federal government aren't required to track cases of families separated by deportation. .The siblings represent America's young legal residents who are at risk for long-term emotional trauma because of a system that doesn't deal with the situation. About 5,100 U.S. children in 22 states have lost parents to deportation, according to the. Some 15,000 more face similar threat in the next five years.the numbers raise questions about the impact of the government’s immigration policies on families and about what happens to the children whose mothers and fathers are deported from the United States The Questions still remains about what happens to the children of deportees.We don’t know how many children stay here and how many go with their parents.
The new figures show that rates of parental deportation have remained largely level since Congress ordered ICE to begin collecting the data, quashing hopes from some advocates that the agency’s 2011 proprietorial discretion guidelines would lead to a decline in these removals.The new guidelines, released on June 17, 2011, in a memo from ICE instructed ICE agents to focus deportation efforts on people with serious criminal convictions, those picked up crossing the border into the U.S., and those who had previously been deported from the country.The memo also ordered agents making deportation decisions to weigh the person’s ties and contributions to the community, including family relationships, and whether the person has a U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouse, child, or parent.”
A rare case was Felipe Montes, to whom the agency granted a “humanitarian parole” to reenter the country in August so that he could attend court hearings on his parental rights.But immigration attorneys say the Montes case is a rare exception and that few, if any other deported parents have the opportunity to come back. Meanwhile, attorneys say that immigrants held in immigration detention centers continue to struggle to maintain contact with their children.The data does show a slight decline in the number of parental deportations in the most recently reported three month period. From July until September of this year, ICE deported 20,878 parents, about 10 percent less than average. The overall deportation numbers for August to September of this year have yet to be released however, so it’s impossible to know whether this also marks a decline in the larger rate of deportation.One reason for the small decline could be that in recent months, ICE appears to have had less luck getting judges to order the deportation of parents. Before January of this year, ICE was able to obtain deportation orders from immigration judges in 50 to 58 percent of cases. Since April, courts have handed down deportation orders in fewer than 43 percent of cases.Concern over what happens to the children of deportees is now squarely at the center of recent advocacy and congressional promises about an immigration reform bill likely to be introduced next year. For parents who are ordered removed, it is their decision whether or not to relocate their children with them.But immigration lawyers say that is not so easy.A recurring complaint is that clients "disappear," often sent to detention centers far away and denied access to family court hearings, phones and attorneys. Many do not fully understand that custody of their children might be slipping away. Alexis Molina was just 10 years old when his mother was abruptly cut out of his life and his carefree childhood unraveled overnight.She went for her papers," he says. "And she never came back.Alexis' father, Rony Molina, a landscaper, was born in Guatemala but has lived here for 12 years and is an American citizen. Alexis, now 11, and his 8-year-old brother, Steve, are Americans, too. So is their 19-year-old stepsister, Evelin. But their mother, Sandra, who lived here illegally, was deported to Guatemala a year and a half agoIt's a question thousands of other families are wrestling with as a record number of deportations means record numbers of American children being left without a parent — despite President Barack Obama's promise that his administration would focus on removing only criminals.
When children follow their parents to their home country they often struggle with stigma and deep poverty. Many of their parents fled poverty, fled government oppression and when they return, they return to these origins. That puts kids at risk. It’s clear, however, that a disturbing number of children are being separated from their families because of deportation for significant stretches of time, and sometimes permanently. And the question for parental deportation is the same as for other groups the federal government have said are criminals. what’s considered significant criminal background?. Figures reveals that nearly 40 percent of deportees with convictions were charged with the lowest level crimes, including driving offenses.The psychological effects on these children left behind include depression, possible conduct disorders, and having a constant sense of a diminishing and ambiguous future. An stimated 340,000 babies born in the United States in 2008 were the children of unauthorized immigrants, and that number is projected to grow. On average, 17 children are placed in state care each day as a result of the detention and removal of immigrant parents. Federal law requires states to pursue termination of parental rights if the parent has been absent for 15 out of 22 consecutive months, and some states allow proceedings to begin even sooner.Some kids are fortunate enough to have other family to stay with. Others get lost in the child welfare system. In some cases, younger children are transferred to state custody and put up for adoption, never to see their parents again. Research estimates that there were at least 5,100 children in foster care who faced significant barriers to reunifying with their detained and deported parents. and projected that if deportation and child welfare policies remained unchanged, another 15,000 kids could face a similar fate over the next three years between 2012 and 2014.At least 5,100 U.S. citizen children in 22 states live in foster care. And an unknown number of those children are being put up for adoption against the wishes of their parents, who, once deported, are often helpless to fight when a U.S. judge decides that their children are better off here.
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