Immigration lawyers urge Homeland Security to stop parent deportation

Around 30 US immigration lawyer groups are pleading for a new law to reunite children born in America with their deported parents.

The groups estimate that more than 200,000 parents have been deported since 2010, separating them from their children who were born in the US. At least 23 per cent of the total numbers of deportations were parents of children born in America and granted automatic US citizenship.

The advocate group Colorlines reported in November last year that over 5,000 children of deportees or detainees ended up in foster care rather than eventually being reunited with their natural parents, 46,000 of whom were deported during the first several months of 2011. California immigration lawyer Lucille Roybal-Allard has introduced legislation to assist families being torn apart by harsh deportation rules and is continuing to levy congressmen for a change in the law.

Although her bill has failed once, Roybal-Allard is reintroducing it due to the perceived change in attitude towards immigration following the re-election of President Obama. She believes that a crisis situation is now in place and says that immediate action is needed to prevent the permanent separation of illegal immigrant parents from their children though deportation.

Her bill, entitled the Help Separated Families Act, will prohibit all states in the US from negating the rights of parents, provided certain criteria are met. This should prevent the adoption by American families of children whose parents have been deported, thus removing the natural parents’ right to custody.

Over 10,000 letters have been sent to the White House by concerned groups and individuals, urging immediate action on the issue. Advocates involved in immigration matters are determined to gather enough support to initiate changes in the legal system which will respect the parent-child bond and stop parent deportation.