Posted on 02/02/2012 10:32:09 AM PST by moonshinner_09
The scars of childbirth were still healing on Amelia Reyes Jimenez's stomach in 2008 when police came to her Phoenix apartment and took her three-month-old daughter from her arms.
Three and a half years later, Reyes Jimenez and her four children have become statistics in the U.S. crackdown on illegal immigration. Each year thousands of children of undocumented immigrants, like Amelia's kids, wind up in foster care when their parents are arrested for immigration violations. Some are even adopted by U.S. citizens while their parents are held in federal detention centers or deported back to their native countries.
Reyes Jimenez's son and three daughters are now living in foster care in Phoenix, and are awaiting possible adoption. Reyes Jimenez is back in Mexico, her parental rights terminated by an Arizona judge, and she cries when she remembers the raid that began it all.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
“I have no idea what is happening in different areas but in some cases children of inmates are taken away- parental rights severed and children are adopted out frequently”
It doesn’t happen “frequently,” and only in extreme cases (one parent murders another, or the parent injured the child).
And I’m not defending illegal immigration. I think she should be deported and her minor children should go with her, even if they’re U.S. citizens, if she doesn’t have a U.S. family to care for them. But it should be HER decision — not the state’s.
Anything else is kidnapping.
WTH are you talking about? The police showed up to investigate CHILD ENDANGERMENT. This isn’t Mrs. Cleaver. Sure, if she were American she’d have other legal options. She’s not American. If she wants her kids back, she should work with HER government’s embassy in the US. Good luck since her kids are US citizens.
Now, why is that, you ask. Because the illegals and their Marxist pals in Washington WANTED it that way. That’s right. They WANTED their children to have US citizenship automatically. Well, the Mexicans got it. This is a natural result of them getting their way. As soon as they change the law back so their kids are just as illegal as they are and they don’t get to go to our free to them schools and they don’t get free to them healthcare and they aren’t taking Americans’ jobs illegally and they start paying all the taxes citizens pay, I’ll agree with you. Until then, it sucks to be her.
I hope she goes and tells ALLLL her Mexican friends how horrible we are in America so they can keep their law breaking butts in Mexico.
Children are taken from inmates all the time- yes frequently, especially if there is child abuse/neglect.
Illegals are normally allowed to make the choice to take their children when deported- there has to be more to this story. She was accused of neglecting a child- correct? I don’t think her losing her kids has to do with her illegal status- I think it has to do with her parenting skills- or lack of.
Child endangerment — leaving a 13 year old disabled kid alone. Gray area. Plenty of parents leave responsible 12 year olds home alone. Mine did. Nothing wrong with that.
It’s possible the kid was fine. What’s his disability?
It’s obvious that vague “child endangerment” charges are being trumped up to steal this woman’s children — because it isn’t quite “enough” that she’s an illegal alien to pass court muster.
“Children are taken from inmates all the time- yes frequently, especially if there is child abuse/neglect.”
There isn’t a shred of evidence that her children are abused or neglected.
She was charged with neglect of a child because her handicapped/disabled child was left alone according to the article.
When people violate laws they put themselves in a position to possibly lose their children. That is a fact, in some states it is very common for inmates to lose their children based only on their criminal behavior- and in others there has to be some type of abuse/neglect of a child in order to take the children. There is also a federal law concerning children in foster care that they can only remain in the system a certain time period (I think it is less than a year) before the parental rights will be terminated. Any incarcerated parent- citizen or illegal has to deal with that law if they are incarcerated for more than the time frame and have no one to care for their children. There are also parenting plans for children in foster care to be reunited with parents- inmates cannot usually meet the requirements because they are locked up- parenting classes, counseling and other common requirements are not available at most jails/prisons for anyone to access. Many advocates of inmate rights and the ACLU have been fighting against that for several years now. These circumstances do not only happen to illegals, I have family that works in corrections and they tell me it is not unusual for inmates to lose their children if they are charged with neglect/abuse or have no responsible person to care for their children while incarcerated.
I know most deported illegals do get to either take their children with them or choose responsible people here to keep them here, there has to be more to this story, yet the story does state she was charged with neglect of a child.
I also note this about this article- talk about agenda:
By LAUREN GILGER, CHARLES GORRA, and BRIAN ROSS (@brianross)
Feb. 2, 2012(ALSO contributing noted at the end of article):
This is the second story in a series from the Brian Ross Investigative Units 2011 Carnegie Fellows, five student journalists who initiated and led a reporting project on the impact of the federal governments enforcement of immigration law. Read the first story here. The journalists are Lauren Gilger, Charles Gorra, Josh Haskell, Robin Respaut, and Selly Thiam.
Copyright (c) 2006 Duquesne University Duquesne Law Review COMMENT: Racing Against the ASFA Clock: How Incarcerated Parents Lose More Than Freedom Fall, 2006 45 Duq. L. Rev. 83 Author Emily K. Nicholson Excerpt I. INTRODUCTION The Adoption and Safe Families Act (hereinafter "ASFA") was signed into federal law by President Bill Clinton in 1997. 1 ASFA's primary goal is to reduce the length of time children spend in foster care by expediting the route to permanency, preferably through adoption. 2 In order for a child to be adopted, however, the parental rights of both the mother and father must be terminated. ASFA facilitates this process by mandating the commencement of termination proceedings after a child has been in foster care for fifteen of the most recent twenty-two months (hereinafter "15/22 provision"). 3
This law applies to everyone and inmates especially have to worry about it if their children end up in the system. This is not something that is just used against illegals as the article would lead you to believe but to all parents. It doesn't sound fair- but what is fair to the children? Is it fair to be stuck in the failed foster care system when you could be adopted if your parent was not incarcerated? On top of the ramifications of this law the woman in the article was also charged with neglect of a child, a handicapped child which likely is more serious under the disablity laws than neglect of children with no disablities.
She plead guilty to CHILD ABUSE.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.