Immigration Raids and Children - Rosa María Castañeda
Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids are familiar stories on television news programs and in newspapers. But what is the story behind the men and women seized in crackdowns across the country?
Many of those undocumented immigrants captured and deported in recent roundups had been in the U.S. for years and have children who are U.S. citizens. What happens when ICE sends your mother and father back home? Rosa María Castañeda of the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. gives Blog La Plaza her view.
As the daughter of a legal immigrant, this piece really speaks to me. Despite my mother having come to this country legally as a small child, her life was still not easy. Her parents divorced soon after they came to this country, and she was affected by the frequent moving her family did throughout her life in the search for work and a place to fit in.
I’m glad that someone is working toward helping children affected by immigration raids, and subsequent deportation of parents, but I do feel that legal child immigrants should be offered help in adjusting to this country as well.
By A.Wolanin on January 31, 2008 at 1:05 pm
I live in Massachusetts and I was shocked by the raids in New Bedford that resulted in babies having to be hospitalized for dehydration because their (still breast-feeding) mothers had been taken away. What kind of society do we live in?!
By Callie Ayres on January 31, 2008 at 11:09 am