U.S. citizen children are at risk of deportation

Children belong with their parents; those who grow up under the protection and guidance of their parents are blessed. Life is more difficult when one or both parents are removed from the lives of children. Sadly, there are circumstances that separate children from their parents, such as a parent called to serve in the military in a foreign war or by illness or death. Many single and divorced parents work double time to guide and protect their children. Society certainly needs to protect children if there is an abusive situation in the home. Yet today, a significant number of U.S. citizen children are routinely deprived of the right to live in this country with their parents.

Children of illegal immigrant parents live with the constant threat of being forced to leave the country of their citizenship or being separated from their parents by deportation. Instability is a constant pressure in their homes as their parents are deprived of necessities for life in this country such as driver’s licenses, insurance benefits of their place of work and refunds from taxes that they pay. Under current law a U.S. citizen over the age of 21 can petition entrance and residency for his or her parents. Yet a citizen child under the age of 21 has no status for such a petition.

The narrow confines of present law are not protecting millions of U.S. citizen children. It is good that citizens over 21 years of age can petition for their parents, but it is the child more than the adult who needs his or her parents to get out from the shadow of deportation. The welfare of the 8-year-old is very much dependent on his parents. The greatest single threat to the lives of children is the separation of children from parents.

Of course, immigration law states that these citizen children have the right to be in this country. The rights of children must protect more than simply the child’s right to being in this country. A more important right of a child is to be raised by his or her parents when the parents are not abusive or doing them harm. The deportation of the parent of an 8-year-old is really the deportation of the 8-year-old as well. Otherwise it separates the child from his/her parents. The 8-year-old American citizen child who is deported to Mexico is not receiving equal protection under American law. A child who is deported to Mexico or any other Latin American country does not have an equal opportunity for education and health care as another U.S. citizen child.

More often than not, when that child comes of age they will return to the U.S., but they will not have the tools needed to find beneficial employment. They will be more likely to enter the dark side of our society in lives of poverty, unemployment, addiction and crime.

The number of children in this situation may be close to the actual number of undocumented adults living in this country. A small sampling of 46 undocumented immigrant adults from Southwest Kansas between the ages of 16 and 61 discovered that this group of 46 undocumented persons has 53 U.S. citizen children. These children are from infants to 16 years of age. Thirty-seven are of school age. They have never been to Mexico. Many have all their relatives here in the U.S. These children are bilingual. Many speak English better than they do Spanish.

In the case of the undocumented persons who have been here over 10 years, a person who is in the process of deportation may ask for a hardship hearing for the cancellation of deportation. A person must prove to a judge of the hardships imposed on the persons involved if they were to return to their country of origin. The hardship for the citizen child is not considered in these hearings except in cases of medical difficulties. To not consider the hardship caused a citizen child caused by the deportation of their parents is ridiculous. Hardship rules should include a generous consideration of the children.

The business of government should be the protection of all of its citizens. Amnesty is not politically popular at this time, but it is truly needed for the protection of children. In order to protect children we need to stand for the right of the children to live freely and safely with their parents. While justice and documents from the U. S. Catholic Conference advocate a broader amnesty for undocumented people in this country, amnesty should be given to the parents of U.S. children for the protection and care of U.S. born children. This should be considered a right of children.