USA Green Card Immigration Blog

Facing Our Future: Children in the Aftermath of Immigration Enforcement.

This report examines the consequences of parental arrest, detention, and deportation on 190 children in 85 families in six locations, providing in-depth details on parent-child separations, economic hardships, and children’s well-being. The contentious immigration debates around the country mostly revolve around illegal immigration. Less visible have been the 5.5 million children with unauthorized parents, almost three-quarters of whom are U.S.-born citizens. Over several years, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) intensified enforcement activities through large-scale worksite arrests, home arrests, and arrests by local law enforcement. The report provides recommendations for stakeholders to mitigate the harmful effects of immigration enforcement on children.

Maricopa County Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio — hailed by many as America’s Sheriff – is under attack for cracking down on illegal aliens. The liberal-left politicians, activists and members of the news media are vilifying Sheriff Arpaio for his department’s immigration and crime sweeps in and around Phoenix.On Friday, government officials with the Homeland Security and Justice Departments stated that the veteran lawman’s deputies could no longer make arrests based on a person’s immigration status. However, during an interview on Fox News Channel’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto,” Sheriff Arpaio told viewers that he and his deputies would continue to enforce the law and pointed to Arizona state laws that he would enforce.In response to the federal complaints regarding his activities, Sheriff Arpaio dispatched deputies on a two-day “crime suppression” operation. While heralded by the men and women he serves, Arpaio’s sweeps have been characterized as racial profiling by opponents of immigration enforcement.The nationwide enforcement of immigration law has been under the gun since President Barack Obama took his oath of office. Many political leaders, mostly Democrats, have targeted enforcement agencies and agents over the past few months with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi calling immigration raids “Un-American” and Congressman Luis Guttierez calling Border Patrol agents “The Gestapo.”Attorney General Eric Holder has also threatened Arpaio with a federal investigation of his Sheriff’s Department and its activities as a result of his success at capturing hundreds of criminal aliens.“Nothing has changed,” Arpaio told a Reuters reporter while overseeing an operation in a suburb northwest of Phoenix. “We’re still going to be doing what we’ve been doing tonight and during the last two and a half years. I don’t take orders from anyone.”Sheriff Arpaio first carried out the sweeps after his deputies underwent training offered by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that gave participating state and local police officers authority to make immigration arrests during the Bush Administration. However, during the Obama Administration deputies have now lost their arrest powers as far as immigration laws on the streets.

via The Reality Check » Blog Archive » “America’s Sheriff” Joe Arpaio vs. Obama Administration.

This is an interesting piece of news from Washington State, where 28 people were jailed for working illegally in a car repair shop.  The normal process for this would be to deport them back to their country of origin (Mexico), leaving parents with the awful decision of whether to leave their US-born children in the US or take them with them.  However, the furor caused locally by the raid and the political sensitivity of the Obama Administration, which is currently in the midst of preparing to introduce immigration reform, led to the Homeland Security chief to order an investigation of the matter.  Supporters of the raid claimed that there was nothing to “investigate” since the US Immigration Customs and Enforcement officers involved in the raid were simply upholding current law.  Because this was the first such raid under the new Obama Administration–and because during his presidential campaign Obama had openly criticized immigration policy because of the frequent unintended result deportation had on families of mixed US and non-US citizen status– the end result for the people jailed was that they received visas to legally work in the United States!  Is this a sign of changes to come in US immigration policy?  Let us know what you think.