Deportations: Missing parents, scared kids
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
October 27, 2013
After their father was deported, Cesia Soza, bottom left, and her brother Ronald Jr. have lived with the Sandigo family in Miami.
They came home from school to find their father missing. It had started off like any other day. As usual, Ronald Soza dropped off his kids Cesia, 17, and Ronald Jr., 14, at school in Pompano Beach, Florida. Ronald Soza returned home to find U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents waiting for him at his doorstep. Soza, an undocumented immigrant from Nicaragua, was taken to a detention center.
When the teens -- both legal residents -- came home to an empty house at the end of the day, they realized something was very wrong. Then the phone rang. It was their father, trying to reassure them that everything would be OK. "Even though we knew my father might get deported, we never thought that it would actually happen, especially since ICE already took our mother away five years ago , " Cesia told CNN.
But it did happen. Ronald Soza was deported to Nicaragua, joining his wife, Marisela. Suddenly, the teens' parents were gone and the Soza children faced a frightening future with foster families and unfamiliar schools. It's been weeks since that terrible day last September, and they still haven't seen either of their parents. The Soza kids "were devastated after their mother was deported," said Nora Sandigo, a family friend and immigrant rights activist. Now, they're "living a tragedy ... they've lost everything, their parents, home... everything." Now they're living with Sandigo and her husband and two girls in Miami.
ICE told CNN in a written statement that Soza was arrested last year and was allowed to return home under certain conditions, such as attending appointments with immigration authorities. But while under supervision, Soza committed 39 violations, including failure to attend appointments with immigration authorities, according to ICE.
Cesia said her father was overwhelmed with his single-dad duties. He did attend his ICE appointments, she said, although "it's possible he arrived a few minutes late. But perhaps they counted that a no-show."
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 Applied Research Center -- a 30-year-old racial justice think tank . Some 15,000 more face similar threat in the next five years.
These families live in constant fear of deportation as their kids attend school and pledge allegiance to the flag. Constantly worrying that their parents will be snatched away, children often feel angry, helpless and trapped.
Families like the Sozas are referred to by the system as "mixed-status families." Ronald Jr. was born in the United States. Cesia -- who was born in Nicaragua -- lives in the U.S. legally under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program . DACA grants two-year reprieves from deportation to undocumented youths who came to the U.S. as children.
At their father's request, Sandigo has become the Sozas' legal guardian. She receives no government funds to offset the cost of raising them. Making ends meet isn't easy. The Soza teens rely on whatever their parents can send from Nicaragua. It's not much. Their father -- who works in construction -- says he has had a difficult time finding a job since moving there.
"We've had to leave everyone we knew behind, switch schools, and we're constantly trying to catch up in our new school," said Cesia. In the middle of all the chaos, she's been juggling paperwork for her immigration status while filing applications to several universities. Another problem: being under Sandigo's guardianship may threaten Cesia's ability to qualify for college financial aid.
"It's been really stressful doing all this without my parents," she said. "I miss them so much." But the siblings have managed to hold on to a few reminders of their former life: some family photos and their precious Chinese Shar-Pei, Snoopy. They talk to their parents on the phone every day. Cesia says it doesn't come close to having them by her side.
Anguishing decision
Their behavior has changed since that day in September, Sandigo said. At school, the teens keep to themselves and don't talk much with other kids. Sandigo worries they may be depressed and are withdrawing from social interaction.
Experts say repercussions of traumatic experiences like the Sozas' can take a serious toll.
"The psychological effects on these children left behind include depression, possible conduct disorders, and having a constant sense of a diminishing and ambiguous future," said Dr. Luis H. Zayas, dean of the School of Social Work at the University of Texas . "No parent should be put through such an anguishing decision of whether or not to leave a child behind, but most importantly, how will these kids feel about their government when they grow up?"
An estimated 340,000 babies born in the United States in 2008 were the children of unauthorized immigrants, according to the Pew Hispanic Center . 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, according to ICE . Some kids are fortunate enough to have other family to stay with, said Zayas. 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. In the end, Zayas warns that the policy threatens to hurt the nation in the long run. "What other future does the U.S. have other than losing a whole generation of kids because of the way their parents were treated?"
Torn between two nations
Desperate to reunite with their parents, Cesia and Robert Jr. have considered moving to Nicaragua -- an idea opposed by their father, who believes there's no future for them there. The parents left Nicaragua in the 1980s because the government, they said, was putting too much emphasis on political indoctrination and social control. But the teens' argument about why they should stay in the U.S. is this: They feel they are Americans. The United States is their home. "I came here when I was 18 months old and I don't know Nicaragua at all," Cesia said. Ronald Jr. admitted his Spanish is less than perfect. "I can contribute more here than in Nicaragua," he said.
Sandigo wishes she could do more to help. "But I can't replace their parents," she said.
She accuses the Obama administration of failing to honor its pledge to make parents like the Sozas less likely to be deported.
The Obama administration stated in 2012 that undocumented immigrants without criminal records would be considered low-priority removals, including those parents of U.S.-born children with strong ties in the United States.
Sandigo argues that if this were the case, Cesia and Ronald Jr. would be with their parents today. Overall, Sandigo questions whether federal officials are committed to making sure children whose parents are deported are properly taken care of. "I have yet to receive a call from ICE asking if these children are even alive -- yet with a legal guardian," she said. 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. During the past 25 years, Sandigo says she has found homes for about 800 children whose parents have been detained or deported.
On Capitol Hill, lawmakers seem to give little attention to the situation. Some say a bipartisan immigration reform bill passed by Senate in 2012 might help. Supporters say it aims to provide a path to citizenship for the nation's estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, strengthen border security and change the visa system. Opponents in the House, many of them Republicans, reject any reform that involves what they consider "amnesty" for undocumented immigrants. In Florida, the Soza children long to see their parents again. And they haven't given up.
"Although we are separated, we are still united in a way," said Cesia. "I have to stay hopeful that this will all work out."
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Now this is a sad situation and could have been prevented if we had been able to keep these people out of this country or provided a means to apply and possibly be accepted into the country.
Yes, this is an old article and it is by "The Guardian". It doesn't criticize Obama the way it criticizes Trump today, like all the other MSM also does as well. The inconvenience of being away from your parents until they are either accepted or rejected as long as the connections between parents and their children are established, making sure the children aren't dispatched somewhere in the USA and no one knows where they are would be essential for this to work.
The problem is we will always have this and many other problems unless we stop illegal immigration and release people into this country before they are qualified to stay here. Most never return for their court dates and run the risk of being deported.
This "Catch and Release" isn't getting it. It is only making the problems worse for those who have evaded the government for years.
Donald Trump has been the only President to try and tackle this problem, but I believe the Democrat leadership has no intentions of accepting anything to solve this problem. It is undeniably true they want the votes and the Chamber of Commerce wants the cheap labor. The Labor Unions want the money they can make off union dues. The Catholic Organization wants all the money they can receive from the government. The private prisons want all the money they can receive from the government.
We're up against many who are benefiting from this and not a one of them are middle class citizens. They are competing for jobs and often go out of business because of that unfair competition.
You are being fooled my all those people who are using your emotions to drive you into your own destruction at your own expense.
Now this is "The Guardian" reporting today.
Nazis separated me from my parents as a child. The trauma lasts a lifetime
I know from experience that the Trump-sanctioned brutality at the US border with Mexico will scar its child victims for life.
Thousands of parents of US citizens still face deportation despite reforms
January 8, 2015
Existing expedited border removal policies leave tens of thousands without an opportunity to explain ties to US
Tens of thousands of parents of United States citizens are summarily deported each year despite President Barack Obama’s immigration reform, according to the advocacy group Human Rights Watch.
Border authorities capture and deport about 50,000 parents annually even though some might qualify for deferred deportation if still living in the US, the group said in a report on Thursday .
In November, Obama used his executive authority to shield more than 4 million undocumented people from deportation. To qualify, such people must have lived in the US for more than five years without certain criminal convictions and have US citizen or legal permanent resident children.
That omitted parents who were deported and were caught illegally re-entering the US to try to reunite with their children, said the report.
“The executive actions did not address existing border removal policies that punish and provide no relief to families that have already been separated by harsh and overly inclusive deportation policies,” Human Rights Watch said.
Since 2008, the administration has deported more than 2 million people. That record earned Obama the nickname “deporter-in-chief” before the executive action restored his standing with many Latinos.
Human Rights Watch used the Freedom of Information Act to analyse Customs and Border Protection data on apprehensions in the fiscal years 2011 and 2012.
Of the nearly 700,000 apprehended adult and child migrants, about 101,900, or 15%, were a parent of a US citizen child. Collectively, these migrants said they were the parents of more than 202,000 American children. Few were given the chance to explain their case to an immigration judge, said the report.
The report said: “60% of parents with US citizen children apprehended at the border are processed under two summary procedures – expedited removal and reinstatement of removal – that allow them no opportunity to make claims about their ties to the United States.”
Blanket deportation of border crosses contradicted the White House’s stated intention to protect families, said Clara Long, the report’s author.
Compounding the problem, parents were more likely to be criminalized for making the crossing and were likeliest to make repeated attempts, she said.
“The president said he wanted to deport felons not families,” said Long. “But we are making felons out of people that want to rejoin their families.”
So, what do you want to do, separate them to either clear their way or send them back or separate the parents from their children after they've lived here for some time? Seems to me I'd rather know when I walked out that door I wouldn't have to worry about being separated from my children in the future and could get on with my life.
The fact is we have a lot of people financially benefiting from these children and then there are others who look at them as an investment in votes.
And the fact is there has not been any outrage from any on the Left all this time until Trump tried to stop the illegal immigration. Tell it like it is, the Democrat leadership really wants open borders so they can have absolute control over the people in this country by eliminating any competition. Then they can tell all you lilly white Liberals where to go.