Kucinich stands up for child citizens
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Archive Oct. 2001 - 2007 editions 2007 Editions Aug. 11, 2007
Author: Emile Schepers
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 08/09/07 12:14


Last week, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) became the first 2008 presidential candidate to co-sponsor a bill that protects U.S.-born children from being forcibly separated from their parents who face deportation.

The Child Citizen Protection Act, HR 1176, was introduced in February by Rep. Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.). The bill seeks to remedy the damage done by a piece of 1996 legislation, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA). Before IIRAIRA was enacted, immigration judges had much more discretion than they do now to stop deportation proceedings against noncitizens. One of the grounds on which such proceedings were stopped in the past was the damage that would be done to children of the immigrant who were born in the United States and thus are U.S. citizens.

The situation of Elvira Arellano, in sanctuary in a church in Chicago after being ordered deported in spite of having a U.S. citizen child, plus those of an estimated 4 million other U.S. citizen children of undocumented immigrants or other immigrants facing deportation, would be addressed by Serrano’s bill.

In addition, IIRAIRA and another 1996 law, the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, greatly increased the number of things for which a noncitizen living legally in the U.S. could be arrested and deported. Under these laws, convictions for relatively minor crimes (e.g. minor drug possession in some cases) now are cause for deportation, even if the crimes were committed and paid for years ago and the individual has lived an exemplary life ever since. People who have been free of all legal worries for 25 years or more have suddenly been whisked away from their families and put on an airplane out of the country as a result of these laws.

The 2003 Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride called for “Fix 96â€