The Deportation of a Parent

Vikki Ortiz Healy writes for the Chicago Tribune:

Those who work with children of a deported parent say they’ve seen an increase in the cases. As a result, churches, schools and advocacy groups are left scrambling to help once stable households deal with poverty, foreclosures, academic failure and other problems that come when so-called “mixed immigration status” families are split up.

The separation creates an “angry generation” of children who feel traumatized and disaffected but still choose to stay in the United States rather than face poverty, violence, and cultural and language barriers abroad. For some, advocates say, life in America is all they know.

“It’s a horrific situation,” said Josh Hoyt, director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. “Given that we have this vastly increased number of deportations … we’re trying to create infrastructure or support, specifically for people that have done nothing criminal other than come here to work, many who have U.S. citizen children.” Read more….

bh