Thousands of Children in the United States Endangered by Deportations

If the United States maintains the current pace of deportations, at least 15,000 children run the risk of becoming separated from their undocumented parents and placed in foster care, noted Prensa Latina.

According to a report published by the Applied Research Center (ARC) on the 2nd of November, there are currently over 5,000 minors who are separated from their parents due to deportations.

Today 1.25% of the children in foster care in the United States are offspring of undocumented immigrants who have been detained or deported, according to the ARC.

During the first 6 months of 2011, over 46,000 fathers or mothers of children who are US citizens were expelled from the United States, says the ARC, a humanitarian NGO.

“Deportations shatter families and endanger the children left behind,” the ARC criticized.

On the same day as the ARC report’s publication, the Republicans of the House Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement subpoenaed the Department of Homeland Security for the list of 300,000 immigrants who are yet to be deported.  They contend that the DHS has withheld information about those undocumented immigrants who are said to have committed minor crimes and yet have remained free since 2008.

About 11 million people of irregular immigration status live in the United States, where anti-immigrant measures have become harsher.

Since the inauguration of Barack Obama in January 2009, nearly a million immigrants have been deported.


The original article “Miles de niños en EE.UU. en riesgo por deportaciones” was published by Juventud Rebelde on 3 November 2011.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com).




| Print