Child stealing
by digby
This is like something out of a Dickensian novel:
An unprecedented increase in the deportation of undocumented immigrants has left an estimated 5,100 children languishing in U.S. foster homes -- a troubling figure that could triple in the coming years, according to a November report from a New York-based advocacy group.
The "Shattered Families" report from the Applied Research Center, which the activist group says is the first to analyze national data related to the separation of families involved in deportations, offers a look at the human dimension of the highly contentious immigration debate.
The Obama administration deported 46,000 parents of children who are U.S. citizens in the first six months of 2011, the ARC report says. Government data shows a total of 397,000 expulsions in fiscal year 2011, with half involving people with criminal records.
"This means that almost one in four people deported is the parent of a United States citizen child," said Seth Freed Wessler, the report's chief investigator and author. "ARC's research has uncovered a troubling collateral effect of these deportations: Thousands of children enter the child welfare system and are often stuck there."
ICE says it "works with" these parents, but apparently it doesn't get very far:
But once separated, the "Shattered Families" report says, the children face enormous obstacles to rejoining their parents, even though child welfare agencies are required by federal law to reunify them with parents who are able to care for them. Because child welfare authorities lack formal policies for dealing with deported parents, the report says, children often fall through the cracks.
After parents are deported, the researchers found that families remain separated for long periods, with child welfare agencies and juvenile courts often moving to terminate the parental rights of deported immigrants. Children who don't have other immediate family are then put up for adoption.
"One of the most common responses from the hundreds of caseworkers and child welfare attorneys that we interviewed all over the country ... was something like, 'When a parent is detained or deported, they basically fall off the face of the earth when it comes to the child welfare system,'" Wessler said.
I just don't know what to say. I'm sure the usual miscreants will say these kids are lucky to be adopted by "real" Americans and others will say they should all be sent back to wherever their parents came from. But the fact is that this is a nightmare for these kids who are basically kidnapped from their parents (who they never hear from again) are thrown in to the system and, at least in some cases, adopted out to strangers. I can hardly believe this is the 21st century.
I wish I could understand why the Obama administration is so intent upon all these deportations. Business doesn't want all this --- they like the cheap labor. There's nothing to be gained politically by it unless they truly believe they will be rewarded for their "toughness" by some rightwingers, which is daft.
I have asked around about this and was told that in this case and the California Medical Marijuana case the agencies are running the show and are not answering to the White House. I suppose that could be true but if so it means our police state apparatus has gone rogue and is answerable to no one. I'm not sure which scenario is worse.
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