November 24, 2008


Study will look at how deporting parents affects Haitian children
Effect of parent deportation is research focus
By Luis F. Perez | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
November 24, 2008
Since his father was detained and deported, 3-year-old Terrence Auguste has had more temper tantrums, his mother said. He started wetting the bed.

"What this country is doing is not in the best interest of their American citizen children," said Rita Altman, a West Palm Beach-based immigration attorney representing the Auguste family. "There has to be another way."
Researchers at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., have studied children in similar circumstances across the country. Now they're coming to South Florida to study how detention and deportation of parents affect children.

For the first time, they're looking at a non-Hispanic population, focusing on Haitians in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.



They estimate 5 million children in the United States have at least one parent who is an undocumented immigrant.
Researcher Rosa Maria Casteñeda met with community groups in South Florida this month and plans to come back in December to interview families. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has stepped up its efforts across the country. During the last fiscal year, the agency's Miami office deported about 13,000 immigrants — about 40 percent more than the previous year's 9,105.

Advocates argue that innocent children suffer unduly. "Children experience a lot of family instability," Casteñeda said.

They worry about having enough money for food. School performance suffers. Behavioral problems crop up, she said.

Altman said she sees many Haitian clients facing deportation even after they have been in this country for years, have jobs, own homes and have given birth to children here. Immigration officials tear families apart, she said.

That's an argument immigrant advocates often make hoping to stop the enforcement of immigration laws, said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for tighter immigration controls. "Kids often suffer for the mistakes of their parents," he said.

Terrence's father, Charlemagne Auguste, of Boynton Beach, stayed in this country after his request for asylum was denied. In the years he waited for a final decision, he met his American-born wife, who asked the government to let her husband stay. While immigration officials considered that, Terrence was born. Then Shawna was born. Six months later, immigration agents picked up their father at work.

"I dreaded that day," Edna Auguste said.

Luis F. Perez can be reached at lfperez@SunSentinel.com or 954-356-4553.
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