Thread: Kids At Risk Of Being Deported

This is one way of getting rid of gang members.

http://www.miamiherald.com/458/story/81822.html

FLORIDA LEGISLATURE | IMMIGRATION
Kids at risk of being deported
A state Senate measure would extend a state program that screens children in custody and reports to immigration authorities any who lack legal residency papers.
BY CASEY WOODS AND CAROL MARBIN MILLER

For the past eight months, the state agency in charge of reforming Florida's troubled youth has quietly been checking the immigration status of children in its custody, and reporting those kids who might be undocumented to immigration authorities.

Department of Juvenile Justice administrators say they have screened more than 10,750 Florida children, identifying at least 364 who were possibly in the country illegally. The names were turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The DJJ says the agency must screen those detained, because of state law -- a measure slipped into an appropriations bill last year after lawmakers failed to get a bill passed outright.

''If you're an illegal immigrant who commits a crime, you should be referred to immigration authorities -- that's just common sense,'' said state Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, who added the screening program to last year's state budget bill.

Attorneys and advocates for immigrant children say the practice deepens the troubles of young people who already need help.

''This is an ill-conceived piece of legislation that . . . serves no purpose other than to further complicate the lives of low-income immigrant families,'' said Miami-Dade Chief Assistant Public Defender Carlos Martinez. ``This may have serious unintended consequences, like Hispanic children being profiled.''

A group of lawmakers is working to pass another provision to make the screening practice permanent. Aronberg has also included a measure in this year's budget. Without legislative action, the current program will end in July, when the next budget year begins.

Minors who were not born in the United States or whose birthplace is unknown are screened under the program, said DJJ deputy communications director Samadhi Jones.

Both of this year's legislative measures are named after a Delray Beach girl who was abducted, raped and dumped in a trash bin in 2005 by an undocumented immigrant teenager with an arrest record.

The girl's alleged abductor, Bahamian immigrant Milagro Cunningham, ''should not have been in this country,'' said one bill's sponsor, state Sen. Mandy Dawson, D-Fort Lauderdale. ``He had a crime pattern, and he should have been locked up or sent back to the Bahamas. Illegal immigrants don't need to be here if they're committing crimes.''

Cunningham, who was 17 at the time of the kidnapping, had been arrested three times on burglary charges. He was charged as an adult, but last year a judge in Palm Beach County ruled him mentally incompetent to stand trial.

Dawson's bill would set aside nearly $130,000 for two full-time DJJ employees to screen children who enter one of the state's 26 juvenile detention centers following an arrest. Aronberg's budget measure would also add two positions, but they would not be permanent.

The $48,915 set aside last year funds only one temporary employee for the screening program, meaning DJJ can't check out all the juveniles whose birthplace is xunknown, Jones said.

Though U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to comment on how it used the information DJJ provided, a Florida Senate analysis of the program said federal agents had not initiated a widespread roundup of children in state custody.

'ICE indicated to DJJ that it will only take action on the ones committing `egregious felonies,' '' the Senate report said.

Aronberg conceded that the program is having little effect. ''The federal government refuses to take action in many or all of the cases . . . and it's been frustrating because we can only do so much,'' Aronberg said. ``I'm very optimistic ICE will act on it if . . . ICE sees a commitment from the state of Florida to provide information and make illegal immigration a priority.''

Gus Barreiro, a former lawmaker who is now a policy consultant for the state Juvenile Justice Association, which represents DJJ contractors, called the proposal ''a very, very, very bad piece of legislation'' that could discourage parents from seeking help for their troubled teens.

Often, Barreiro said, police or counselors tell parents to have their children arrested when they act out because that's the only way to get them help, such as costly mental health care. But if parents know that their children -- or their entire family -- could face deportation upon an arrest, they may resist help, Barreiro said.

''They won't reach out for anything,'' said Barreiro, who headed the state House's juvenile justice spending committee for several years.

Advocates for immigrants echoed Barreiro's concern.

The screening program 'will definitely affect immigrants' dealings with police,'' particularly making crime victims afraid to report crimes, said Jonathan Fried of We Count!, a social justice organization based in Homestead.

''This is particularly egregious when we're talking about minors,'' Fried said.

OK, am I the only one that has to laugh at the irony here? Some hate this bill cause it prevents the parents from getting COSTLY mental health help for the minors.... isn't that another way that illegals are getting taxpayer funded social services that they say they don't use? They aren't supposed to get this anyway are they? With the already legal criminals we have here we have to release back into society and still are at risk from them becoming repete offenders. At least we can ship the illegals criminals out, with no chance of returning legally with a record against them. I am all for this bill.

If they are in the country illegally they should be deported. We are not spending tax dollars on juvenile deliquents/criminals that should not even be here. Deport them!!!

Ship them back. We have enough bad seeds here now.

illegal is illegal. There parents can't be bothered with following our laws why would they consider putting their children in harms way?

Load up the bus

Nits breed lice

Ship the whole family back home, then no more worries about breaking up families when poor mommy and daddy get sent packing!!!

DEPORT!