Thread: Child Abuse Lawsuit Creates Immigration Waves

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Oct 16, 2006 9:38 pm US/Central

Child Abuse Lawsuit Creates Immigration Waves



"I think it would be an abusive thing to forcibly separate children from their parents under circumstances like that where it is clearly avoidable," Dr. Bennett Leventhal said.

(CBS) CHICAGO A child abuse lawsuit aimed at helping illegal immigrants stay in the country is creating some waves.

Some people believe the lawsuit in support a Chicago mother and her son misses a critical point, and CBS 2's Rob Johnson reports that others believe it's right on target.

The immigration debate has become one of America's most pressing issues. The latest salvo fired came last week with the filing of a class action lawsuit on behalf of children like 7-year-old Saul Arellano, whose mother Elvira is hunkered down in a Humboldt Park church fighting deportation.

The suit names President Bush and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, among others, and claims that such deportations are a form of child abuse.

"They should be able to live in this country with their parents and that is not happening," said Emma Lozano with the Center Without Borders.

That strategy, says CBS 2 legal analyst Irv Miller, is a long shot.

"It's probably not going to be a class action, which is what the mom and the child want it to be to gain the notoriety," Miller said.

But UIC child psychiatry professor Dr. Bennett Leventhal believes that a child in that type of situation faces real emotional damage.

"I think it would be an abusive thing to forcibly separate children from their parents under circumstances like that where it is clearly avoidable," Leventhal said.

But there are others, like Michelle Jacobsen with the Chicago Minuteman Project, who contend that Elvira Arellano is confusing the entire issue.

"Why did a mother put her child in this situation? Because the government didn't do that to her. The government didn't force her to come over the border," Jacobsen said. "The government didn't force her to fraudulently use a Social Security number or to have a child over here when she was illegal. She made all of those choices herself."

Supporters of undocumented immigrants are planning to have many of these children at a huge rally in Washington on Nov. 3, hoping the president will hear their pleas.

Their opponents vow to continue talking about how they believe illegal immigration is hurting this country.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

"I think it would be an abusive thing to forcibly separate children from their parents under circumstances like that where it is clearly avoidable," Leventhal said.

I agree, send them both back to the mother's homeland, where the child should have been born.

Dixie

Why does separation of the child from the parent even come up? By all means the child should go with the parent. What kind of a parent would even consider leaving their children in a country without them? Illegals I guess, have never heard any other parents suggesting this!

Originally Posted by nittygritty

Why does separation of the child from the parent even come up? By all means the child should go with the parent. What kind of a parent would even consider leaving their children in a country without them? Illegals I guess, have never heard any other parents suggesting this!

Saul is nothing more than a tool and anchor for Elvira. She is a pathetic mother and a lawbreaking leech. I am convinced that she conceived him as an insurance policy against being deported.

If we really wanted to discuss child abuse, we would be demanding that social services remove this child from his mother. She is the sole cause of the repeated mental abuse that the child is experiencing. Exploitation is a form of abuse too!

Why hasn't anyone filed a petition with the courts to have this child removed from his abusing mother?

If being separated from a parent is so bad then why were so many babies put up for adoption in the past? How many children have mothers who are unfit and are being raised by other family members or being put in foster care? I guess those kids are legal so does that make it okay?
Send them both back in every case. This is crazy. I have heard of cases where these moms were allowed to stay and when the child was old enough, they sponsored them for residency. This has got to stop.

If anyone is abusing a child it's her.

nittygritty wrote:

Why does separation of the child from the parent even come up? By all means the child should go with the parent. What kind of a parent would even consider leaving their children in a country without them?

Because since the kid is a citizen, they (the illegal parents) think that the kid has a right to stay in this country. This should not be the case. These 'citizen kids' really don't have the rights of an adult anyway. They can't have a credit card, can't buy a car or home, can't start a LEGAL business, etc..so deport them with their illegal parents and let them return when they are adults. Why hasn't ICE raided the church and enforce our immigration laws? This is a time bomb waiting to go off.

Rockfish is right. Those kids are minors and therefore need to be with at least one parent. Kick them out. As for Elvira, she is not going to go away. Raid the church and get her and charge the minister with aiding and abeting a criminal. If certain ICE agents have a problem raiding a church then use ones who don't.

The only one abusing that child is the mother. She was deported, and she came right back three days later, and then got pregnant. She knew what she was doing, she knew that by having a baby she would have an excuse to stay in the country.

Some one pleeease stop these women from coming here to have babies. These babies born to illegals should not be citizens. What do we have to do for the government to do something about this big problem? They are not listening to us. Our taxes keep on going higher and higher, why do we have to support children that we don't make? This is not fair.


If you’ve never heard the term "anchor baby," then you need to. Here’s an example, outlined in the spring issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, that will boggle your mind. Cristobal Silverio entered the states illegally in 1997 to work as a fruit picker, bringing with him his wife and three children, all illegal aliens. The following year Mrs. Silverio gave birth to a fourth child, and with that birth the family had an "anchor baby"—an American citizen by birth, who provided the entire Silverio family with a free pass to remain in the United States permanently. Unfortunately the baby was born prematurely, spent three months in the neonatal incubator, and cost the San Joaquin Hospital more than $300,000. Meanwhile, the oldest Silverio daughter married an illegal alien and gave birth to her own anchor baby, and then Cristobal’s wife gave birth to yet another baby.

Anchor babies are United States citizens from the moment they’re born, and they instantly qualify for public welfare aid. And over 300,000 anchor babies become citizens each year in the United States thanks to the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside." The two Silverio anchor babies generate $1000 per month in public welfare funding for the family; the premature baby gets $600 a month for asthma, and the healthy baby gets $400. The Silverio family earned $18,000 last year for picking fruit, and the government gave them another $12,000 for their two anchor babies.