Thousands of Children Stuck in Foster Care after Parents Deported, Report Finds (689 hits)
A report released this week reveals yet another devastating consequence of the enforcement-only approach to immigration—a startling number of children whose parents have been detained and deported are placed in foster care and face enormous barriers reuniting with their families. According to the Applied Research Center, 1 in 4 people deported in FY 2011 (nearly 100,000 people) left behind a U.S. citizen child. The report found that the odds of reuniting the families are so low that the parents “basically fall off the face of the earth when it comes to the child welfare system.” Sadly, because of the regular increase in the number of annual deportations, this number is expected to triple in the next five years. http://immigrationimpact.com/2011/11/04/th...
The report, titled Shattered Families, found that:
—Yet, Child Protective Services (CPS) cannot place children with undocumented family members because they “could be deported at any time.” And because the average person detained is moved over 300 miles from their home before deportation proceedings, the chances of finding a parent for court hearings and reunification are slim. While CPS is legally required to reunify children with able parents, immigrant children face enormous barriers
