Immigration Detainees Lose Their Children to Foster Care

According to a recent National Public Radio story, about five million children in the United States have at least one parent who is an undocumented immigrant. While there has always been a risk of a family separation if a parent is deported, with the increased immigration enforcement efforts that have occurred since Trump took office last January, this risk has dramatically increased. If parents are unexpectedly detained or they have not made sufficient arrangements for their children, the children are often placed in foster care; because the children are often American citizens, or because the immigration officials simply decide to keep them out of detention, the children are not deported along with their parents. Moreover, the chances of parents being able to get their children back from a country thousands of miles away or from an immigration detention facility are remote, at best. Back in 2011, a study showed that about 5,000 children whose parents had been deported were in the foster care system. In response to these statistics, the Obama administration made various policy changes in order to protect parents’ interests during immigration proceedings and released many parents who were in detention facilities back into their communities. With these policies no longer in place, however, immigration advocates now fear that the number of children of deported immigrants in foster care, as well as the number of immigrant parents’ whose parental rights are terminated, will increase dramatically. Therefore, advocates are urging all undocumented immigrants with children to have plans for their children in place in the event that they are deported, usually in the form of guardianship documents that designate another adult to be the guardian of their children. The separation of families continues to be an all-too frequent occurrence in the federal government’s methods of enforcing immigration laws. As a result, getting immigrants released from detention is a primary objective of our law firm. The deportation defense lawyers of Landerholm Immigration, A.P.C. will continue to handle deportation defense claims on behalf of individuals who have been detained and charged with removal. We know how devastating it can be for individuals to face potentially being forced to return to a country where they previously were persecuted, where they no longer have family or a home, or where they will experience significant violence and unrest. We care about you and your family, and we want to help you remain in the country. Call our office today to set up your legal consultation.