The American Council of Immigration does not approve or oppose candidates for elected offices. We aim to provide an analysis of the impact of elections on the US immigration system.
This is Kelsi Lo’s guest blog, edited by Victor Yang. They are high school students who are trying to raise awareness about the barriers faced by immigration policies and face by birthright citizens and mixed-status families. You can follow more work on Justsoli.com
Yeisvi was over 11 when he was separated from his mother, Vilma Carrillo at the Arizona border. Carrillo was taken into custody in Arizona and moved to a detention center in Georgia where her daughter was fostered. Yeisvi was a US citizen at birth and her mother was an asylum seeker from Guatemala. Carrillo fled to the United States from her abusive husband. She was forced to separate from her daughter at the US-Mexican border. As Yeisvi was a US citizen, he was unable to be with his mother detained in an immigration detention center.
Immigration policy has had a detrimental effect on children of US citizens born from non-citizen parents. Despite the promises of politicians of social equity to all US citizens, the US government has repeatedly imposed barriers to US citizen children based on the nationality of their parents. Statistics from the Kids Count Data Center in 2016 showed that approximately 23% of children born in the United States (more than 910,000 children) had non-citizen mothers. Although this number was predicted to decline, in 2018, an estimated 4.4 million U.S. citizens under the age of 18 lived with at least one undocumented parent. Of these, at least 500,000 parents were deported between 2011 and 2013. Today’s UIC has found that children who lose their parents due to deportation are more likely to suffer depression, anxiety and academic retreat.
Thousands of children separated from their parents are forced by tension, underfunded and overcrowded in our foster care system. According to a 2011 report by the Applied Research Center (ARC), there were at least 5,100 children with parents who were detained or deported. We had expected ARC numbers to increase. Foster Care frequently deals with issues such as lack of funding, foster parents, caseworkers, and more. In 2020, around 60% of foster children were not properly cared for, as only 39% of foster children were covered by government funding. Furthermore, research shows that foster children are more likely to develop depression and anxiety disorders, with 37% suffering from depression and 35% suffering from anxiety-induced mental illness. The evidence shows that not only does foster care children face a deterioration in quality of life, but these children (already victims of trauma) are placed in an environment where they lack the resources to support them. It proves that there is.
In 2019, Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported 27,980 US-born children and 27,980 people. According to a 2023 press release from the Department of Justice, the US is Ms. Lv. A settlement was reached related to parent-child separation at the southwest border of Ice. Under the settlement, new standards have been established aimed at limiting family separation and improving family unity efforts. However, the lack of transparency and accountability through ice and customs and border security (CBP) remains a fundamental barrier to achieving those goals.
“I heard my colleagues say ICE has taken better care of me in an interview with Shaina Simenas, a social worker by trade and co-director of the Technical Assistance Program at Young Immigrants’ Children’s Rights Center. Remember where they keep people’s belongings rather than where they placed immigrant children. “She suspects that the child is in another state, but where does she go. We shared our experiences in case consultations where we had not clearly considered whether there was, and CBP records did not contain the information necessary for reunification.
Fighting for the release of her sister, Carrillo’s brother Gregorio told the Times, “It makes no sense for a girl born in this country to suffer extended separation.” Immigration for families like Carillos should be treated that way, not personal political. Ultimately, the forced separation of families through deportation policies not only undermine the very basic principles of equity among Americans, but perpetuates a cycle of poverty and systemic inequality. These policies ignore the constitutional rights guaranteed by the United States-born children. By prioritizing punitive immigration measures over children of US citizens, the US government fails its youngest and most vulnerable citizens.
Submitted below: Separation of family
