Abused and trafficked women losing children under immigration regime

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Over the next five years, at least 15,000 American children face being separated from their parents because of immigration enforcement.

That’s one finding from a new report “Shattered Families” that examines the intersection of immigration enforcement and the child welfare system. It’s from The Applied Research Center, a 30-year-old racial justice think tank that uses media, research and activism to promote solutions.

The report has also found that:

There are at least 5,100 children currently living in foster care who are prevented from uniting with their detained or deported parents.
The problem is national, not one confined to border jurisdictions or states.
Families are more likely to be separated where local police aggressively participate in immigration enforcement.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention obstructs participation in Child Protective Services’ plans for family unity.
Most child welfare departments lack systemic policies to keep families united when parents are detained or deported.

The report found that in many cases, ICE was detaining victims of family and gender-based violence whose children then entered foster care and subsequently lost their children.

Victims of domestic violence and human trafficking are often isolated from their networks because traffickers and abusers cut them off from families and friends. As a result, if they are detained by ICE, their children may have no other family or close family friends who are available to care for them.

Many of these women should have been protected from detention in the first place, because victims of crimes can apply for visas because Federal law maintains specific categories of visas for victims of domestic violence and human trafficking in particular. ICE is supposed to take special consideration for these victims, but the report finds that they appear to be being detained in immigration detention centers with disturbing regularity and for extended periods.

A parents’ attorney in Maricopa County, Arizona, described a case in which a report of domestic violence caused the initiation of the CPS case and a mother’s arrest and detention:

I have a Mexican immigrant client detained by ICE for a year. She was a [domestic violence] victim and the police got involved and that’s when they found out that she was undocumented and so they had to go ahead and detain her. Eventually, they released her and permitted her to stay here in the U.S. based on a Violence Against Women Act visa. But the fact that she was detained by ICE was enough to push the kids into foster care.

Her kids were in care for a whole year and there was no other family to take them. Now CPS is trying to help her get her sons back but the process is slow.

Hilaria was arrested in Phoenix, Arizona because she tried to defend herself against her abusive husband. In October 2010, her husband attacked her and she says she fought back, drawing blood. A neighbor heard screams and called the police. When officers arrived, they arrested Hilaria for assault. ICE quickly detained her.

Since their children were home at the time of the report, the police called CPS. When the CPS caseworker arrived, the officers and Hilaria’s husband said that Hilaria was the assailant, so the caseworker left the children with the husband. Two weeks later, the child welfare department returned to check on the children. The caseworker suspected that Hilaria’s husband was using drugs and removed the children from him, placing them in foster care.

Two months later, sitting in a visitation room over an hour from her children, Hilaria said tearfully:

“I’ve had domestic violence before but I took it for my kids. Now they’ve robbed me. I did what I did to defend myself and my kids.”

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Image byShattered Families cover

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
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Claire M.

11:40AM PST on Feb 16, 2012

I have news for the advocates. They treat American children the same way if their parents are having hard financially difficulties. In many states they have a 6 month rule, they have your kids for 6 months they become available for adoption and the parents have little hope of getting them back. Some judges and lawyers benefit financially from fees to broker adoptions. The entire Child Protection system or Child Welfare system as called in some states is rigged to traffic children among foster families most of whom do it for money. The system is concerned more about justifying its annual budget so they go after easy cooperative parents who will do what they are told to insure the safety of their children. Some are told that if they do not cooperate and agree in front of a judge to charges they will never see their children again.

So of course the undocumented mother issue is perfect to fit in with their already corrupt system. There are few agencies that I feel need a total redo [most just need better management] but CPS is one of my exceptions. Also some judges who cooperate with this system later run for political offices, so if you can you should know who they are.

send a green star

Sarah M.

1:12PM PST on Nov 19, 2011

pure evil

Marjaana V.

10:34PM PST on Nov 11, 2011

so, let me get this straight: some guy drags a girl into the states and then uses her as a domestic slave. she has 7 kids, one of them ill. he's abusive and she runs off without the inhaler [?] but ends up giving the daughter to fostercare, realizing that she can't provide for her herself.

then she'd jailed for lack of care and gets deported without her kids. and a whole lot of people here are saying that's just a ok, you have enough immigrants already...

would these people perhaps have no kids? or been left orphans? never had any hardships? never gone hungry - homeless - cold - lost?

yes, i realize your immigration problem is Huge, but why penalize women who did not want to be a part of the problem in the first place?

KS G.

3:46AM PST on Nov 10, 2011

Thanks for the article.

Christopher M.

10:10PM PST on Nov 9, 2011

OK, I apologize. Substitute guy in wheelchair learning computers, or African American woman. Poor idea in middle of the night.

Faith P.

1:44PM PST on Nov 9, 2011

because we don't have enough kids in foster care and with broken families. lets make some more.
this is just wrong, children should neve be kept from parents who love and can take care of them.

Thomas L.

11:35AM PST on Nov 9, 2011

You know what Christopher M, for someone who talks about the evils of homosexuality and the threat of eternal damnation, you're not very nice. Your disrespect for the Native Peoples of America is disgraceful, although also the most socially accepted form of racism if you're looking for a get out of jail free card.

You make some interesting points, outsourcing is bad for the economy, mmmkay, lots of people in America don't get a chance, yada yada. I'm not disputing the truth of that. But your thinly veiled racism is not appreciated, especially when on another thread you're using your profession of faith in a religion of love to justify the actions of bigots, even if you don't directly participate yourself. Even if you don't.

Prejudiced attitudes like this are what is causing problems in the ICE, and for the ICE, which is the issue at hand. You got plenty right, but I'm addressing your attitude. Altruism has been an essential trait to the evolution of all species, don't lose it.

2:24AM PST on Nov 9, 2011

On the subject of the fact that we treat Americans like garbage, consider the following political action commercial:

There is a bus with garbage collectors running through the neighborhood picking up, in order, a person in a wheelchair, an Appalachian family, an American Indian, an inner city single mom and her kid, and a Vietnam veteran while a narrator speaks

"We got so many people that nobody gives a chance to. We treat them like garbage. Why?"

Scene changes to Hispanic maids, janitors, IT staff from India.

"Is it because we are used to looking abroad for our staffing solutions instead of looking right here?"

Screen goes dark with the words and voiceover. "Perhaps it is time for America to hire within."

That could be the entire commercial, or could continue.

"Perhaps we should dramatically reduce immigration while we have economic difficulties. Perhaps we should start training (ridiculous scene of Native American in garb learning computers) our own people to meet our own challenges instead of employing people from poor or overcrowded countries."

"And perhaps long term we should think about how many kids we will really need to get the job done, so we don't breed or have unemployed in future decades."

"No American left behind. We can do it."

1:06AM PST on Nov 9, 2011

The ICE are not a law-abiding government organization. The people attracted to this by and large are cop mentality pigs with a vendetta against hispanics, so what would you expect? The laws that are in place are not being followed, compassion is the exception not the rule, and it's reasons like this that NYC has stopped working with these goons.

Reign in your government America, your dog's off the leash in your yard and everybody else's.

Lori E.

10:45AM PST on Nov 8, 2011

Wow, that's sad that they're not protected. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.