POSITION PAPER: IMPACT OF WORKPLACE IMMIGRATION RAIDS ON CHILDREN
ICE SHOULD WORK TO REDUCE THE IMPACT OF WORKPLACE IMMIGRATION RAIDS ON CHILDREN OF UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS To download this information, use these links: Impact of Raids on Children - Short form Impact of Raids on Children - Background paper Workplace raids by immigration officials are on the rise. In the last few years, thousands of undocumented immigrants have been arrested in worksite raids. Often hidden from public view is the impact these operations have on the children of those detained. Five million children in the United States have at least one undocumented parent or caregiver.[1] Most of these children are under the age of ten, and over three million of them are U.S. citizens.[2] More than 19,000 children (13,000 of them citizens) experienced the loss of one or both parents due to workplace raids from 2005-2007, and this number is rising.[3]
The effect these enforcement measures have on children is severe. They are often left without caregivers and suffer short- and long-term economic, physical, social and emotional problems.[4] In recent raids, access to telephones has been forbidden until after the detainees have been fully processed. As a result, detained parents were unable to arrange for childcare. [5] This forced some children to stay with friends, babysitters, or even alone.[6] School attendance plummets after a raid.[7] In addition, infants have been deprived of breast milk, even when Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have been informed that the baby was nursing.[8]
Economically, the effect of depriving a family of one or both wage earners may seriously damage already strained resources and often leads to the decreased availability of basic necessities. Families are often forced to sell long-term necessities such as vehicles, or move to less expensive locations (potentially requiring children to change schools). Even if the family has savings, the arrest of a wage earner causes those surpluses to dwindle quickly without providing a simultaneous means of recovery.[9]
Surveys conducted after recent raids indicate that children who were affected by worksite enforcement operations also suffered psychological and emotional trauma. Sleep disturbance, loss of appetite, depression, fearfulness, mood swings, and feelings of abandonment have plagued many of these children. This has led to reported cases of abject sadness, and even atypical anger toward the remaining parent and other adults. Other problems include severe separation anxiety, attachment disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. In addition, social stigmatization and feelings of isolation have been prevalent.[10]
ICE officials are aware of the risks that these operations pose, and defend their methods as necessary to stem the "jobs magnet" driving the flow of immigrants into this country, and to protect the United States from terrorism.[11] As one ICE official stated, "Any disruption, whether to families or communities, should be put at the feet of those who violate the law." [12]
In March of 2007, in response to community outcry based on these problems, ICE released guidelines for addressing the humanitarian concerns of caregivers detained during worksite enforcement operations.[13] These procedures stipulate that ICE will identify humanitarian issues and coordinate with federal, state and/or local social and health services, including nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), to assess humanitarian issues and ease communication among detainees and their family members. ICE also is not supposed to transfer detainees out of the area until a humanitarian screening has been completed.[14] Similarly, in November of 2007, ICE released specific guidelines that nursing mothers should be released on an Order of Recognizance or other Alternative to Detention programs.[15]
Although these principles are a step in the right direction, ICE's new guidelines have several weaknesses. Compliance has not been perfect.[16] Moreover, the guidelines are non-codified and thus non-binding suggestions for ICE officials' conduct. There is no oversight mechanism to ensure compliance.
Most importantly, the guidelines are incomplete and fail to provide for the myriad of ways in which children can be adversely affected in a worksite enforcement operation. Specifically, the guidelines do not recognize the "best interests of the child" standard, which permeates so much of U.S. law relating to children.[17] This lack of focus on these children's needs prevents ICE from even considering the many dangers that these operations pose to children and their communities.
Human Rights Initiative, as the provider of legal and social services to immigrant children, believes that the needs of these children, and the effect their parents' detention has on them, must be made a top consideration by the United States government. Enforcement operations, conducted as they now are, have a destructive and lasting effect on children in immigrant communities. Current policy and practice must be reformed to ensure that these children, innocent and potentially helpless, do not shoulder the cost of their parents' problems when the right policies might prevent it. Instead of aggravating the harms faced by children of undocumented workers, the federal government should be required to make every effort to mitigate the destructive impact of its immigration enforcement operations on these individuals.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on HRI's findings, we recommend the following: ICE should end all workplace raids until comprehensive immigration reform can be enacted. Assuming that ICE continues to raid worksites, ICE must guarantee that detained workers have immediate and private access to phones so that short-term childcare issues can be addressed. ICE must proactively ensure that, when both parents have been detained, at least one parent is released on bond within 12 hours. All parents should be released on bond within 48 hours to minimize the impact on these families. Orders of Recognizance or Supervision, and Alternatives to Detention should be considered in all appropriate cases. The United States government and ICE should enact policies that consider the family needs and status of children of parents in deportation proceedings. ICE must adopt its recent guidelines on children impacted by raids so that they become mandatory standard operating procedure in all situations. All workplace raids guidelines should be revised to ensure that the "best interests" of the child are among the top considerations when parents have been detained.
[1] National Council of La Raza & The Urban Institute, Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on America's Children (2007). [2] Id. See also Monica Rohr, AP Impact: Immigration Raids Split Families, Boston Globe, March 11, 2007. [3] Julia Preston, Immigration Quandry: A Mother Torn From Her Baby, N.Y. Times, Nov. 17, 2007. [4] Janet Murguía, National Council of La Raza, The Implications of Immigration Enforcement on America's Children, presented before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor, Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, May 20, 2008. [5] See note 2, above. [6] See Murguía, note 4, above. [7] Kathryn M. Gibney, San Pedro Elementary School Principal, San Rafael, California, Verbal Testimony Given Before the U.S. House of Representatives Education and Labor Committee: Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, Washington, D.C., May 20, 2008. See also note 2, above. [8] See Preston, note 3, above; see Rohr, note 1, above. [9] See note 2, above. [10] Id. [11] Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Public Information on Worksite Enforcement, Feb. 6, 2008, available at http://www.ice.gov/pi/worksite/index.htm. [12] Monica Rohr, Small town Iowa struggles after immigration raid, A.P., Aug. 14, 2008. [13] Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Press Release, Kennedy, Delahunt Announce New Guidelines for Immigration Raids, Nov. 16, 2007, available at http://kennedy.senate.gov/newsroom/ press_release.cfm?id=0F91969E-96EB-4AB1-832B-2CF42451B587. [14] Id. [15] Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Memorandum, Memorandum Outlining Prosecutorial Discretion for Nursing Mothers, Nov. 7, 2007, available at http://www.nclr.org/content/publications/detail/52035. [16] Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Press Release, 595 arrested in ICE and Department of Justice joint immigration enforcement action initiated at Mississippi transformer manufacturing facility:?Approximately 106 identified with humanitarian issues, eight charged criminally, Aug. 26, 2008, available at http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0808/080826laurel.htm. [17] See Murguía, note 4, above.
HRI would like to thank the following interns from Southern Methodist University's Dedman School of Law for their help with this project: John Capehart for the initial research and drafting of this position paper,
Kylie Beal, with cite-checking.
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