At least 108,434 people who were deported in the past 10 years had children born in the United States, according to a report from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
“Through the years, I have said many times that our present system of deportation is inhuman and anti-American. Now, we have direct proof of that,” said Congressman José E. Serrano (D-NY 16th District) yesterday after the publication of the report, which he himself had solicited from DHS.
The study is based on interviews with employees and officials from several different agencies and institutions, and a review of the documents related to these deportations.
Serrano assured El Diario/La Prensa that the number indicated in the report could be much higher if the records were more complete. “If we assume that each deported parent had only one child, then we are talking about more than 100,000 U.S. citizens who have been left as orphans, but the number could be 200,000 or 300,000,” stated the Bronx Democratic legislator.
DHS officials said they had no information in their registry that would indicate whether the children of the deported immigrants were minors or adults, and that it was recommended that the authorities at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) establish a procedure to determine the age of the children and how many times both parents have been deported.
“The second part of our demand is an investigation of what has happened to these children. Whether they were abandoned, or stayed with a relative, a neighbor or a friend, or whether they left the country and joined their parents,” said the Congressman. “If the children left the country with their parents, then technically we have deported U.S. citizens, and the Constitution does not allow that,” he added.
DHS officials indicated that they had been unable to establish whether or not the U.S.-born children of deported immigrants remained in the country after their parents' departure. Nonetheless, they stated positively that ICE had informed them that no U.S. citizen was being detained by that agency.
The United States deported more than two million people between 1998 and 2007, according to the report. Among the reasons cited for the deportations were: violations of the immigration laws – such as a lack of authorization to remain in the United States – or a person's having committed criminal actions which affected his or her immigration status.
For Serrano, this report is “the first step in stopping the inhuman deportation practices of our government.”
The Congressman recommended to those who find themselves involved in such cases that they continue to fight, and to make it known that they are the parents of U. S. citizens. “I do not believe that any American can support a government which destroys families or orphans children,” Serrano emphasized.
