Thread: Congressional Hispanic Caucus to intro new legislation?

There is a nugget in this article from Maria Elena Salinas:

Stop leaving small children behind in raids
By Maria Elena Salinas
11/13/07 00:00:00



We have heard their heart-wrenching stories. We have seen their teary-eyed faces. But not until now do we have a better picture of how thousands of children have been affected by the arbitrary detention and deportation of their parents during immigration raids.

An in-depth report recently released by the National Council of La Raza and the Urban Institute shows how children are paying the highest price in the ongoing debate over immigration policy and the hard-line practices of immigration authorities.

Thousands of undocumented immigrants have been arrested and deported in the past year, but researchers focused on three cities where massive raids had been conducted in the workplace. They were Greeley, Colo., Grand Island, Neb., and New Bedford, Mass. In dozens of interviews, they were able to get a firsthand account of the aftermath of the raids.

Perhaps the most important finding is the enormous amount of children who were affected. For every two adults arrested, one child was left behind. Among the 900 adults detained were the parents of more than 500 children. Two-thirds of those children were U.S. citizens, and a similar amount were under 10 years old.

After the initial bursts of outrage over the separation of families, immigration agents began releasing some of the detainees who were single parents, but many were kept overnight or for several days.

Some were sent to detention centers in other states. At times, the detainees had no access to telephones and were unable to make arrangements to have their children cared for.

The short-term impact, the study found, is that extended-family members and community organizations had to scramble to take over some of the child-care duties and deal with the lack of food, diapers and clothing for the kids. The long-term impact is more worrisome. Both children and temporary caretakers had to deal with the economic hardship and psychological trauma caused by the arrests and the uncertainty of not knowing if and when the parents would return.

Strong claims to protection

The study focused on children, according to the report, because "they have strong claims to the protection of society, especially when they are citizens and are integrated into their schools and communities." For many of them, the U.S. is the only country they have ever known.

Nora Sandigo couldn't agree more. The Nicaraguan businesswoman-turned-immigration-activist has become a one-woman fighting machine for the rights of children who are at risk of being left behind as a result of immigration raids. Sandigo has been defending the rights of immigrants since founding the nonprofit, community-based organization American Fraternity in 1989 in Miami.

But now more than ever, she is carrying a big weight on her shoulders. She has been given legal custody -- as guardian ad litem -- of more than 600 children of undocumented immigrants from all around the country. It is estimated that around 5 million U.S.-born children in this country have at least one parent who is undocumented.

Sandigo is trying to prevent the separation of these children from their parents on whatever front she can. She recently met with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and got them to commit to introducing legislation that would attempt to block the deportations and ask that undocumented parents of U.S.-born children be given a renewable five-year visa, until their American children can claim them.

She has even taken her uphill battle all the way to the highest court in the country. A class-action lawsuit filed in the Supreme Court on behalf of hundreds of children claims that their civil, human and constitutional rights are being violated by the detention and deportation of their parents, and demands a moratorium on the raids.

It is good to know that there are organizations and individuals in this country looking out for the rights of the most vulnerable members of our society. But a country that aspires, as its core educational goal, to not leave any child behind needs to take notice of how its immigration policies and practices are not just leaving millions of innocent children behind, but putting their well-being and their future at risk.
Maria Elena Salinas is anchor of “Noticiero Univision.â€

Take your children (legal, illegal, citizens) with you and return to your home. Stop using children. It is not right that illegal aliens and their families are stepping in front of Americans and our children and grandchildren.

Rev. 1:1

Oh my Lord!

The PARENTS make the choice to leave their children behind. The PARENTS are separating their own families.

Children belong with their parents, that's a no brainer. Take them with you!

The only legislation needed it to end birthright loophole!

I think this will spur the US voters to demand an end to birthright amendment.

First of all, I find any report by La Raza to be less than credible. Second, they are using their children to get what they want which is deplorable. Third, the parents knew the risks and committed the crime anyway. Don't blame us for your people's stupidity. Fourth, they don't HAVE to leave their children in the US. TAKE THEM WITH YOU.

We did not create the problem...you did. The burden of the future of those children are on the parents who brought them in illegally or had an anchor baby in hopes of gaining citizenship.

If a bill is introduced, we will beat it down like all the others. Take your pathetic children and go home.

She has even taken her uphill battle all the way to the highest court in the country. A class-action lawsuit filed in the Supreme Court on behalf of hundreds of children claims that their civil, human and constitutional rights are being violated by the detention and deportation of their parents, and demands a moratorium on the raids.

Oh boo freaking hoo illegals.
So should every American who has family serving in the military start a law suit to bring their family members home from Iraq and other places in the world? NO!

Should we start a class action law suit against all the courts in the land who put criminals away? NO!

Should we start a class action law suit aimed at car mfg's because people's family members were killed in car accidents? NO!

I am so tired of hearing this dribble! And yet from the wonderful and STUPID MSM, you WILL NOT HEAR ONE WORD about any American family that has been seperated by having one of their own serve in the war, or how a family member being raped or killed by an illegal.

Your little illegal family is lucky that only borders are seperating them. MANY AMERICAN FAMILIES ARE SEPERATED FOREVER BECAUSE OF BOOSH'S STUPID IRAQ WAR, ILLEGALS DRIVING DRUNK, BEING KILLED BY AN ILLEGAL GANG MEMBER, OR BY SOME OTHER MEANS.

Take your cry baby attitude and leave the country because your "victims" chose to break the law themselves, and they chose to leave their families themselves.

If the welfare of their children mattered to them they would not put them in that situation. The solution is to make clear that unless they were born here to slaves, they have no birthrights here. If the constitution were being upheld, that would be the determination of the Supreme Court in any case of this sort. Then all their children would be deported with them not just those they brought in after the anchor babies were born.

erhaps the most important finding is the enormous amount of children who were affected. For every two adults arrested, one child was left behind. Among the 900 adults detained were the parents of more than 500 children.

What about the children of convicts? In 1999 there were 1.5 MILLION US citizens separated from their parent who was in prison. I suggest, using the above logic, all of these prisoners, regardless of their crime, be released for the sake of the children.

[quote]Almost 1.5 million minor children (17 years old and youn-ger), an estimated 2 percent of America’s kids, had a mother or father in federal or state prison in 1999, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced today. That figure has grown in step with the swelling of the nation’s prison population, with an increase of more than 500,000 children since 1991. A majority of the children with imprisoned parents (58 percent) were younger than 10 years old - the average was eight years old. According to the BJS report, imprisoned parents were overwhelmingly male (93 percent), as is the general prison population, and predominately held in state prisons, rather than federal facilities (89 percent compared to 11 percent). The number of minor children with an imprisoned father (1,372,700) rose 58 percent from 1991 through 1999, compared to a 98 percent increase during the same period in the number of minors with an imprisoned mother (126,100).

Half of the parents in state prisons were black, about a quarter were white and a fifth were Hispanic. In 1999 an estimated 767,200 black children, 384,500 white children and 301,600 Hispanic children had a parent in prison. The percentage of black children in the U.S. resident population with an imprisoned parent (7.0 percent) was nearly nine times higher than that of white children (0.8 percent). Hispanic children were three times as likely as white children to have a parent in prison (2.6 percent).

State prisoners who were parents were less likely to be violent offenders (44 percent) than inmates without children (51 percent), the report said. Three-quarters of state prisoners who were parents had a prior conviction, and a majority (56 percent) had previously been incarcerated. On average, the imprisoned parents expected to serve more than six-and-a-half years in state prison and eight-and-a-half years in federal prison.

More than 80 percent of all parents in prison reported that their minor children lived with the other parent, but these answers differed sharply by gender. About 90 percent of fathers in state prisons said at least one of their minor children were now living with their mother, while 28 percent of mothers in prison said their child's father was the current care giver. M others most often said their children’s grandparents were the care givers (53 percent), compared to 13 percent of the fathers who said their children were with grandparents.

Forty-six percent of all parents in state and federal prisons said they were living with their children just prior to their admission to prison. Among parents in state prisons, 44 percent of the fathers lived with their children prior to their admission, compared to 64 percent of the mothers. As of December 31, 1999, an estimated 336,300 U.S. households with minor children had a resident parent in prison.

Forty percent of the imprisoned fathers and 60 percent of the mothers reported weekly contact with their children by phone, mail or visit. However, a majority of both fathers (57 percent) and mothers (54 percent) reported never having had a personal visit with their children since their admission to state prison. More than 60 percent of the parents in state prisons reported being held more than 100 miles from their last place of residence.

The study also found that almost 60 percent of the parents in state prisons reported having used drugs in the month before their offense, and 25 percent reported a history of alcohol dependence. More than a third of the parents in state prisons committed their offense while under the influence of alcohol.

About 14 percent reported a mental illness, and 70 percent did not have a high school diploma. At the time of their most recent arrest, 27 percent of the fathers and 50 percent of the mothers in state prisons were unemployed. In the month prior to their arrest, 46 percent of the parents said they had incomes of at least $1,000 a month, and 27 percent said their income derived from illegal activities. Mothers in state prisons were twice as likely as fathers to say they had been homeless the year before their arrests, 18 percent compared to 8 percent.

About half of the parents in state prison were never married and a quarter were currently married. In the month before their arrest, 20 percent had been living with their children in two-parent households, 18 percent were living with their children as single parents and 62 percent lived apart from their children.

The data are based on personal interviews in state and federal correctional facilities during which the inmates described various aspects of their lives both before and during incarceration. The special report, “Incarcerated Parents and Their Childrenâ€

She has even taken her uphill battle all the way to the highest court in the country. A class-action lawsuit filed in the Supreme Court on behalf of hundreds of children claims that their civil, human and constitutional rights are being violated by the detention and deportation of their parents, and demands a moratorium on the raids.

If the Supreme court sets the children's rights as a precedent, it really could mean the release of all parents from prison. Equal protection under the law.

And who is calling for justisce for the U.S. children who have been separated from their parents by an illegal alien drunk driver. Please spare me anymore whining illegal alien sob stories. The affect the teary mothers and the crying children has long passed for me. Ethnocentric organization like La Raza and the Hispanic Caucus should be deemed race based and racist and dismembered.

Hispanic caucus, Asian caucus, black caucus, where is the white of European decent caucus?