Over 1,000 Kids in L.A. County Foster Care Have Capable Parents Who've Been Detained/Deported

LA Weekly (blog) - ^ | Simone Wilson

[moonshinner_09]

Report: Over 1,000 Kids in L.A. County Foster Care Have Capable Parents Who've Been Detained/Deported. Arguably two of California's most controversy-plagued government factions -- immigration enforcement and child protection -- team up for double the incompetency in today's "Shattered Families" report by the Applied Research Center.

The heartbreaking new data shows that 1,178 children in Los Angeles County alone are only in foster care because...

... their illegal-immigrant parents are caught up in deportation proceedings.

"It's one more problem," says Richard Wexler of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform. "What you've got is two hugely dysfunctional systems, and when you put them together, the results are disastrous."

There's no way to tell, for sure, whether all of these parents were otherwise capable of raising their children, but researchers found that in the vast majority of cases, the immigrants got caught in the classic Secure Communities conundrum -- deemed "criminals" for being undocumented, then prevented from taking the necessary steps to prove they're fine caregivers by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials overseeing their deportation.

For all other adults under the close supervision of the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services, due process to reclaim their children is a parental right -- but as a federal border agent actually told us at the Mexicali crossing last year, undocumented aliens have no rights in this country, including human ones.

[moonshinner_09]

Mexicali crossing last year, undocumented aliens have no rights in this country, including human ones, sure nobody would be dishonest to get an advantage to stay here.

[Tennessee Nana]

Bring-hankies PING

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

“Capable”???? They’re ILLEGAL. Is THAT the standard they’re setting for their kids? BREAK THE LAW?

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Aw.

Boo-hoo. Send them back with their parents. They’ve got their anchor baby status to fall back on, but they should be with their family.

Keeping them here away from their parents is HEARTLESS.

[unixfox]

They shouldn’t be here in the first place. Sorry, no symapthy here.

[exDemMom]

deemed "criminals" for being undocumented

Um... maybe because entering this country without the proper visas is a crime? And why aren't the children of illegals being deported with their parents?

[HighlyOpinionated]

This is RIDICULOUS and proves that there are idiots running the system. There is NO REASON why the children of ILLEGAL entrants cannot and should not be deported with the parents. The kids can have a US Birth Certificate and can produce it at the border when they turn 21 and decide at that time if they want to enter the USofA as ADULTS.

The PROBLEM is with the misappropriation and misunderstanding of US Citizenship ... these children should never have gotten US Citizenship unless their parents were US Citizens.

Congress has got to address this issue and stop providing citizenship to babies born in the USofA unless both parents are US Citizens. If the parents are not married and the Mother is not a US Citizen, the children should not be US Citizens. If they are married and either parent is a US Citizen, they have the choice of having the child be a US Citizen or not. And if one of the parents is not here legally, AND the parents are married, the non-legal should be given twelve or thirteen months to obtain legal status or be deported ... with or without the child, their choice.

[sinanju]

I recall reading somewhere that the law was actually quite clear, if only it were enforced.

Minor U.S. citizen children, MUST accompany their parents. When they turn eighteen they can petition to be issued a U.S. passport and come back here, but not before.

[frog in a pot]

From the article:
We are not here to deal with immigration; we are here to reunify children [with parents]. That's our goal and that's our job. That's what social workers do.

And, that is commendable. But the article makes no mention of whether the child is also sent back if the parent is deported (and one can ask why the parent should not be deported).

If the parent is deported - which is the U.S.'s means of dealing with the crime - then the child, whether born here or not, should go along.

Isn't it a bit presumptuous of the government to assume the taxpayers should pick up the bill for the cost of "adopting" the child?

[hinckley buzzard]

What kind of parent abandons his/her own children in a foreign land. All they had to do was pack up the kids and all go home. We don't need irresponsible people like this coming into the country. We have more than enough of our own already.

[GeronL]

Puh-leeze.

Free schools, free ER visits, free welfare

It’s time we end these incentives for lawbreaking.

[momtothree]

I may be completely OFF-BASE here but I have the feeling that this situation is being used to make a point. “Awww, the poor children... we shouldn’t be separating babies from parents so make the parents legal... for the children’s sake” mentality. I, for one, am not buying it. Send the parents with their kids back home.