Thread: {sob} Deported Immigrants' Kids Face Dillema

Deported Immigrants' Kids Face Dillema


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Apr 4, 2:01 AM (ET)

By JULIANA BARBASSA

(AP) Adrian Ramirez, 12, cries while answering a reporter's question at First United Methodist Church in...
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PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) - Twelve-year-old Adrian Ramirez huddled with his two sisters on a bench and tried to find the words to describe his feelings about their mother's pending deportation to Mexico.

"I want my family to be together," he said, wiping away tears as Yadira, 10, and Adriana, 6, stared at their shoes. "I want them to stop these laws. I don't know what life would be like in Mexico. My home is in Palo Alto."

Adrian's lament is becoming increasingly familiar as immigration officials step up efforts to seize illegal immigrants. Many of the 18,000 men and women deported under Operation Return to Sender since June were raising families - including children born in the United States.

Adrian's father, Pedro Ramirez, who had worked at an Albertson's supermarket, was deported in February. His mother, Isabel Aguirre, was arrested and ordered deported at the same time, but given a monitoring ankle bracelet and some time to make arrangements for the children and to purchase a ticket home.


(AP) Rev. Dr. Diana Gibson of the Council of Churces of Santa Clara County, from left, talks with...
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In cases like this, the children - all American citizens - can remain in the United States with friends or relatives, or leave with their deported parents.

Ramirez and Aguirre had evaded deportation orders and notices to appear in court since 1997, immigration officials said. They ignored the law and consequently were arrested at their home, the officials said.

"We've been working with these people for years," said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lori Haley. "Now it's up to the parents what they want to do. They can take the children with them, or leave them with relatives or people they can entrust them to."

But the predicament of deported parents is tearing many families apart, said clergy and immigrant advocates familiar with such cases.

"Is it really a choice? Staying in foster care, or leaving with their parents?" asked Samina F. Sundas, the founder of American Muslim Voice, which is trying to help the Ramirez family.


(AP) Adriana Ramirez, 6, right, is hugged by family friend MarieLena Gaona-Mendoza at a news conference...
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For the youngest Ramirez children, the choice was clear: they want to live with their parents. But they said they're sad about leaving their friends, and worried about enrolling in a school in Mexico and having to write in Spanish, which they haven't learned.

Their 15-year-old brother, Pedro, a sophomore at Gunn High School, struggled with the decision, trying to keep up with school but breaking into tears at times, said his math teacher, Chris Schulz.

"He wants to stay. He has a life, aspirations here," Schulz said. "But he's decided to go, to support his mother and his family."

A group of nearly two dozen clergy issued a statement Tuesday calling for an end to immigration sweeps. The religious leaders, from such communities as New Bedford, Mass., Greeley, Colo., and Richmond, Calif. - all heavily impacted by Operation Return to Sender - protested what they say is the government's disregard for immigrant families.

A raid at a small leather factory in New Bedford netted 361 undocumented workers - among them the wife of Lilo Mancia, who has been detained since March 6.


(AP) In this photo released by the Palo Alto Weekly, Isabel Aguirre stands outside the Immigration and...
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Neither Mancia nor his boys, ages 2 and 5, have been able to see her since. The younger child was born in the United States.

The children miss their mother, who is awaiting immigration hearings that will determine when she'll have to return to Honduras, Mancia said in Spanish.

"I'm illegal, I can't ask. It's sad," he said. "They call her, 'mom, mom,' especially at night."

Priests who are helping the families, such as Father Richard Wilson of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in New Bedford, signed the religious leaders' statement against such raids.

"God calls on us to protect the weak, especially children," Wilson said in a statement. "Instead we are ripping apart the fabric of the community and leaving children behind."

California religious leaders who are familiar with the Ramirez family's plight agreed.

"No matter how we feel about immigration reform, leaving children abandoned and violating a person's constitutional rights are wrong," said Rev. Anna B. Lange-Soto of El Buen Pastor Episcopal Church in Redwood City.

Lange-Soto stood by Isabel Aguirre on Tuesday as she presented tickets to immigration authorities showing she will leave the country by Friday. If attorneys aren't able to find a way for her to stay, she will fly to Michoacan, Mexico, with her children. Because the couple was here illegally, they are barred from returning for 10 years.

Their children try to imagine life in Mexico.

"I don't know what that will be like," Yadira said quietly. "I don't think I remember anything from there."


http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070404/D9JV500.html

These kids should be angry with their parents for putting them in this situation. Their parents came to this country illegally and got caught after being told to leave the country and now they are being deported. They at least have a choice of having someone else raise them in the US or having them go back with them. I did see mention of foster care in this article. I hope that it is not being offered to illegal aliens that are being deported to put their children in foster care at the expense of american taxpayers.

"I want my family to be together," he said, wiping away tears as Yadira, 10, and Adriana, 6, stared at their shoes. "I want them to stop these laws. I don't know what life would be like in Mexico. My home is in Palo Alto."

Who is to blame?

Adrian's father, Pedro Ramirez, who had worked at an Albertson's supermarket, was deported in February. His mother, Isabel Aguirre, was arrested and ordered deported at the same time, but given a monitoring ankle bracelet and some time to make arrangements for the children and to purchase a ticket home.


The parents! That's who! There are many men and women in prison whose American Kids miss them too, but does this mean they should all get out of prison even though they broke the law because THEIR KIDS MISS THEM TOO??? If you don't like MEXICO or any other country that you are from then you need to change it. It's not the fault of the United States or its citizens. It's not fair to unjustly call American Citizens racist, uncaring or anything else because THESE "ILLEGALS" BROKE THE LAW!!!!! ...and now are suffering some of the consequences!

These children of illegal immigrants need to be deported with the parents. If they do stay here with relatives and reach adulthood under no circumstances should they be allowed to sponsor their parents back into the United States, since the parents broke the law were deported in the first place. If they have no family members, that are legal citizens, by no means should they draw any type of assistance funded by taxpayers. I do not think their families should be broke up and what better place to teach your children their heritage but in their OWN COUNTRY. No one wants or needs any of them here! So I say out and stay out!

Is this the meaning of FAMILY VALUES doesn't stop at the Rio Grand?

Teach your children HOW TO BREAK THE LAW.

Those are some strange family values!!

"I want my family to be together," he said, wiping away tears as Yadira, 10, and Adriana, 6, stared at their shoes.

We want your family to be together too - that's why you're being given the opportunity to go with them.

Originally Posted by MW

"I want my family to be together," he said, wiping away tears as Yadira, 10, and Adriana, 6, stared at their shoes.

We want your family to be together too - that's why you're being given the opportunity to go with them.

We should be nice, invalidate their American Birth Certificates for citizenship purposes and send them all back to be together. I'd pay for their bus fare.

All parents that commit crime cause their children to endure the same suffering...
DON"T COMMIT CRIMES...simple

I don't know what that will be like," Yadira said quietly. "I don't think I remember anything from there."

I wonder if it took a translator to let us know what was said? (i'm being mean...)

I'm sorry but I have no sympathy for this. The parents made the poor decisions and figured they'd get let off "for the sake of the children". Sorry..."for the sake of the children" you don't break the law and put them in that position.

I've not yet reconciled the difference between an American in jail, separated from their children with NO HELP from the government other than, perhaps, DCS and foster care

and

an ILLEGAL being sent back to their home.

The only real difference is the ILLEGAL's ability to take their children and avoid separation as well as all the help from Government entities.
Should they CHOOSE separation, that's a choice and not something forced upon them!