Deportation split Julie Santos' family in 2001, forcing her husband, an illegal immigrant, to return to Mexico while she and their two U.S.-born children remained in her hometown of Chicago.
George Santos had worked and paid taxes in the USA for 15 years but is barred from ever returning because he used false identity papers to claim he was a U.S. citizen.

About 2 million families nationwide face a similarly gut-wrenching risk of deportation because the children are U.S.-born citizens but at least one parent is an illegal immigrant, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. If deported, the parent must decide whether to leave the kids with relatives in the USA or take them along.
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