Thread: Forgotten? I didn't know this was happening!

The Forgotten Immigrants
by Lis Wiehl

•The Forgotten Immigrants

FNC
Lis Wiehl





Blocks away from the footprints at Ground Zero, a high-rise building looms over lower Manhattan, functioning as our 21st century Ellis Island. Once a month at 26 Federal Plaza, the New York Headquarters for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), children pile into a windowless courtroom, anxiously awaiting a judge’s decision — who can stay in the United States and who must go.

Every child has a story. Some fled persecution from their homeland, some have been abandoned and are simply stranded. But there is a common link — they’re all undocumented and have been neglected, abandoned, or abused. All too often, unaccompanied and undocumented children experience horrors, such as trafficking, prostitution, and domestic abuse. They’re treated like an afterthought, tossed to the jaws of the foster care system without representation.

Stranded, undocumented juveniles are caught in a web between a crackdown on national security (especially since 9/11) and child protection. Immigration officials seek to deport many of the 5,000 apprehended children each year, citing the need for strict national border security.

But what about the 500 kids a day who wait anxiously in detention for a verdict? Advocates of immigration control say these policies discourage parents in foreign countries from sending unaccompanied children to the U.S. Homeland Security says they have one rule for everyone, and won’t treat a case differently just because the subject is a child.

Christopher Bentley, a representative for the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, says because of 9/11, the way this country deals with administering immigration benefits and services has changed. “The law for anyone who comes to the U.S. is that there are special steps that must be taken,” he says. “That someone is not of a certain age is not the mitigating factor — the factor is whether they have permission to be here.”

And abandoned children don’t stand a chance without the proper safeguards of a legal advocate. “These are kids that don’t have adults looking out for them, so they don’t have adults to get them an attorney,” says Eve Stotland, senior attorney at the Door’s Legal Service Center. “They are on their own.” Often, the only choice is underground or on the streets.

Fortunately, we do have some laws designed to protect these children, regardless of their immigration status. In 1990, Congress enacted Special Immigration Juvenile Status (SIJS), a green card created specifically for neglected, abandoned and abused children. The federal law shelters this niche of undocumented children, helping them obtain lawful immigration status in the state juvenile system. “The very nature of the word ‘special’ is in context,” Bentley explains. “SIJS is an exception to the general rule specifically to accommodate these abandoned children.”

Here’s how SIJS works:

To qualify, a child must enter the state welfare system and be placed in long-term foster care or a group home. The real catch is that these requirements must occur in a timely manner or they lose the protective umbrella of SIJS. Timely, under federal law, means the child must be under the age of 21 at the time of application and at the time of adjustment. Unfortunately, state law is usually more stringent and requires the juvenile to complete the process by age 18. The catch-22, of course, is that you first have to know SIJS exists to take advantage of the opportunity. That’s problematic because there aren’t guidelines in place to address a child’s immigration status in foster care. It’s possible, and highly likely, that many of these children will slip through the system. But, while the government makes no exceptions for age, there is some good news. “Child advocates are meeting with foster care officials and through effort, awareness has improved, even though it’s always a struggle,” says Stotland.

These days, even with a lawyer on the case, an application for SIJS can take years, and sometimes fails because the time limit expires.

Bintou Boboutou, a girl from the Ivory Coast, landed in foster care when she was 16-years-old. While her green card application collected dust on a stack of papers at INS, Boboutou forged a new life for herself in New York. She graduated from high school, worked summers as a counselor, and won an engineering scholarship. But Boboutou’a papers never reached the top of the stack. Her lawyer, Michelle Caldera, says immigration authorities lost her application at least three times. That should be illegal!

Finally, days before her 21st birthday, officials called for her fingerprints and for a green card interview, but the process wasn’t completed by her birthday. Days separated Boboutou and a green card. Within minutes, she went from accomplished scholar to illegal immigrant — subject to deportation. While Boboutou’s lawyers mounted an appeal, the city allowed her to stay in foster care. But her studies and career flat-lined while she concentrated on avoiding detention.

Boboutou’s story is just one of thousands, signaling a radical deficit in legal immigration for children. It’s hard to believe our government does not afford these abandoned children the right to appointed counsel. Only 10 percent of children appearing in immigration court are represented. Advocates of restricting immigration maintain that special juvenile status opens the door for people to send their children here without considering the risks — a virtual free-for-all. That may be true to some degree, but we can’t just turn our heads and pretend this isn’t happening. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that every mother and father outside the U.S should send their child here illegally, but SIJS or not, it’s going to keep happening. So, let’s find a safe and efficient way to provide these neglected and abused children with sanctuary and an opportunity for success

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,204722,00.html

Does this intend to take care of all the children of the worl ? if yes OK so for me it's fair and balance (like fox claim)

If the numbers of these children being abandoned is very high then it shows ONCE AGAIN that these are not just good people coming across the border. This article did not say the numbers/month etc. to come to much of a conclusion as to how bad this problem is. It just said 500 children a day wait. Well, can anyone really decifer this statistically ?

They say 5,000 children to be deported but they didn't clarify whether those children are abandoned or not.

I am concerned about any child who is "abandoned", and I think they should make this story more clear. I am suspicious it is fuzzy because the real purpose of the story is to make Americans feel bad so that we will stop fighting against illegal immigration.

If people are dumping there kids here hoping they will get citizenship and then they want to come back with a family visa. I would cut the family visas off for those kids. Also, I hope the kids are being counted in the quotas. I hope they are knocking others out of line. I would rather have the kids that will more likely than not assimilate over adults that would not.

Originally Posted by Dixie

If people are dumping there kids here hoping they will get citizenship and then they want to come back with a family visa. I would cut the family visas off for those kids. Also, I hope the kids are being counted in the quotas. I hope they are knocking others out of line. I would rather have the kids that will more likely than not assimilate over adults that would not.

Would be better to place them in immediate adoption rather than limbo for years and years. They'd assimilate, CUT TIES to family that would hopefully stop any further "family visas" and the education we're going to give to them freely anyway would be put to better use as an assimilated American.

THIS MESS SHOULDN'T EXIST IN THE FIRST PLACE!!

Originally Posted by 2ndamendsis

THIS MESS SHOULDN'T EXIST IN THE FIRST PLACE!!

2nd,

You are so right!

Dixie

First off, as others have said, why are these children being abandoned and by whom?

Could it be they aren't really abandoned, but their parents have put them in a position that the US will have to 'adopt' them. Later then, the parents can come forward with some garbage story and the parents will be given citizenship because, 'we don't want to breakup families'?

How about, "I was picked up by ICE at work and immediately deported, couldn't contact anyone. My poor children were left abandoned. What? They are now citizens - well, I want my children back and I want to stay here with them." Sounds like a plan.

I think the bottom line of this story is just business as usual with our government and their unholy alliance with the media. Anytime, in this country, the people make it known strongly they want something done about a situation, the government and media get together and pull some reallyl nasty deals. They will pick out the most vulnerable or most sympathic person or persons, and suddenly enforce the law. They then call the media and get some sob stories printed about how this law is affecting people.

The started doing this many years ago. Back when welfare began to grow and people were outraged and wanted some changes and some checks on its growth. They would pick out someone who clearly could not care for themselves or their children and put them off welfare. Not before they contacted all media outlets. Then the government would say, 'well, we enforced the law like all those mean old citizens wanted us to do.'

They have done it many times in this illegal situation. Remember after 9/11 when citizens were saying we should close the borders and clean house? The government singled out a woman from England to deport. She was the widow of an American killed in WTC who had not completed her papers. The government officials knew this was not the most pressing example of illegal immigrants we had in this country, but they played it up in the media. We always get sob stories about poor Maria whose husband beats her up and she comes here to escape him - or poor Juan, who is an honor granduate and some mean old people want him to be sent back, and so forth and so on.

I think that is what we are getting here.