In Arizona hundreds of children are abandoned and left in foster care or in the care of already burdened extended family when birth parents are arrested, detained and then “disappeared” into Arizona ICE detention facilities in Eloy, Florence and Phoenix. A press conference addressing the community impact of children left behind when their parents are detained and deported by ICE is scheduled for Tuesday, January 17, 10:00 am, at the Arizona State University School of Social Work campus, 340 N. Commerce Park Loop Suite 250, Tortolita Building, Tucson, Arizona. Over 20 family service providers and attorneys, as well as representatives of affected families, will participate in this press conference.

Seth Wessler, author and principal investigator of the newly released Applied Research Center publication Shattered Families: The Perilous Intersection of Immigration Enforcement and the Child Welfare System, http://arc.org/shatteredfamilies/, will review the findings of his research in Arizona and elsewhere. His report estimates that up to 15000 children of immigrants face the risk of being trapped in foster care over the next five years due to policies that prevent their reunification with a detained or deported parent.

University of Arizona law professor Nina Rabin, author of Disappearing Parents: A Report on Immigration Enforcement and the Child Welfare System http://www.law.arizona.edu/depts/bacon_program/pdf/disappearing_parents_report_final.pdf, details what happens to parents languishing in ICE detention in Arizona without word of their children or the ability to participate in CPS deliberations regarding their children’s long term welfare.

National policy analyst Yali Lincroft of First Focus based in Washington, DC, author of Caught between Systems: the Impact of Immigration Enforcement on Child Welfare http://first focus.net/library/reports/caught-between-systems-the-intersection-of-immigration-and-child-welfare-policies, will address the problems and lack of coordination between immigration enforcement and child welfare agencies which can harm children and separate families.

Community representatives will testify to the consequences of living in fear when hurting children, spouses and grandparents are left behind. Many affected children are US citizens, or left their home countries when they were very small and have no cultural or language ties to those countries.

Spokesperson Laurie Melrood stated, “These innocent children become an unplanned expense to extended family, the community, and our overburdened state foster care system, when their parents are detained and deported. In the vast majority of cases, the parents committed no crimes or acts of abuse against their children, and are perfectly capable of caring for them. We’re asking ICE to use prosecutorial discretion whenever possible to release parents of children while their immigration cases are being decided. We are urging the Department of Homeland Security, local police and sheriff’sdepartments and other corrections organizations to review their policies to ensure that detained and deported parents are afforded due process rights and are able to make decisions regarding their children’s care throughout the enforcement process, whether children are cared for within or outside of the child welfare system. We’re also informing the community of a variety of tools within immigration law that will allow children and parents to reunite, and families or children who qualify to achieve a better immigration status.”

Press conference sponsors include the Florence Immigration and Refugee Rights Project, Arizona Council of Human Service Providers, Applied Research Center (New York), Gente de I’toi, Pima County Supervisor Richard Elias, State Senator Linda Lopez, former Arizona Representative Phil Lopes, and more.

Background

Melina A., a Mexican citizen formerly of Phoenix, Arizona, suffered spousal domestic abuse for 10 years before having the courage to leave her husband. Months later he was arrested and deported, leaving her to cope with the trauma of abuse, unexpected debt s and to raise two US citizen children alone. In October, 2010, because of some unpaid traffic tickets, Melina was arrested by the police on a routine traffic stop and quickly picked up by ICE. Her children were placed in two separate foster care placements. None of the relatives stepped forward to care for the children for fear of also being arrested by ICE. Melina had no lawyer and no knowledge of her rights as an immigrant or as a Mexicannational. Under constant pressure from ICE authorities and fearful of a threatened long prison sentence, she agreed to “voluntary departure “ to Mexico. She had lived in the US for 26 years, and neither family nor friends were there to help her when she returned to Mexico. She now lives in a homeless shelter where she receives her meals and a bed. Her days are spent looking for work and worrying about her children.

Melina was visited by community advocates in Mexico, and now actively seeks to participate in her child protective services (CPS) case in Maricopa County. The protective services worker assigned to her case, when contacted, says he had never met or spoken to Melina. The mother, he informs the advocates, “disappeared and I don’t know how to find her. The children are US citizens, so they are the priority.” Melina despairs at not seeing her children for over three months. “How can I abandon my children? No, I cannot let them live permanently with strangers. I will fight to get them back. They are my life, my reason for living,” she declares in tears.

A new report from the Applied Research Center (ARC), Shattered Families: The Perilous Intersection of immigration Enforcement and the Child Welfare System, found Melina’s story all too common in their national research. The report conservatively estimates that more than 5000 children are currently living in foster care because their immigrant parents have been either detained or deported. These cases are not just occurring in border communities. ARC identified 22 states where children in foster care are separated from their parents because of immigration enforcement. Tragically, in many cases thesefamilies never reunite. Social workers, attorneys and judges typically do not receive the tools or training to be able to work jointly with child protection and immigration enforcement services. The financial and emotional cost to states for care of these children, many of them US citizens, is enormous. “Our research found that families are being left out of decision-making when it comes to the care and custody of their children,” said Seth Freed Wessler, author and principal investigator of Shattered Families.

Disappearing Parents: A Report on Immigration Enforcement and the Child Welfare System reveals findings from Pima County that corroborate the national picture. Her report found that ICE policies create a climate of deep anxiety and depression for parents. They are unable to telephone their children in custody, fear long prison sentences in ICE detention facilities, and do not know their legal rights including their ability to utilize consular services to assist in reunit

ing with their children. They are unable to pay bonds placed on them ranging from $1500 to $20000 per person as a condition of their release.

Attorneys, judges and child welfare workers are “sensitive to the unique concerns of immigrant parents and thoughtful in their perceptions regarding challenges posed by the immigration enforcement system,” according to author and principal investigator Prof. Nina Rabin. But overall, the system itself suffers from areas of weakness. CPS case workers are generally “reluctant to undertake reunification efforts when a parent is facing deportation or has been deported.” They often don’t have the language skills to communicate with the immigrant parents, and are not aware of help offered by the Mexico Consulate in locating deported parents and seeking assistance from Mexican social service partners.

They do not understand how to serve “mixed status” families, where some members are citizens and have rights to supports and benefits while other family members do not. And many CPS workers, given the confusion created by state laws such as SB 1070 are fearful of serving families where some members, whether children or caregivers, appear to be undocumented.

Recommendations

Professionals, community advocates and affected families themselves have mobilized to provide recommendations and strategies to help families separated by immigration and child welfare policies. There is universal agreement that there are currently “many gaps in knowledge, policy, law, and practice regarding immigrant families that affect child welfare agencies daily” states Yali Lincroft, author of Undercounted, Underserved, Immigrants and Refugees in the Child Welfare System (2006, Annie E. Casey Foundation, www.aecf.org/upload/publicationfiles/ir3622.pdf ) Too often, how or whether an immigrant parent is able to reunify with their children depends on an ad hoc approach of getting assigned the right case worker, attorney or judge. The lack of policy or written guidance in these complex cases involving both immigration and child welfare illustrates a pervasive weakness in the current child welfare system.

Laurie Melrood, a long-time Arizona children’s advocate, offers the following recommendations to Arizona state policymakers on behalf of the press conference sponsors:

Improve child welfare practice: Child welfare professionals, attorneys and judges should receive additional training and technical assistance so they can effectively reunite children with immigrantfamilies. Federal funds allocated for training would cost less than keeping children in state foster care for indefinite periods. Increase between law enforcement, immigration and child welfare is needed to ensure there is coordination of cases involving arrested or detained parents

Provide alternatives to detention to caregiver parents, allowing parents to participate in the lives of their children by use of prosecutorial discretion, reporting periodically to an ICE officer, electronic monitoring.

Utilize immigration remedies for youth, including assessment tools applied in each individual case provided by an attorney or a well-trained child welfare worker. Jurisdictions could consider adding contracts with attorneys with immigration expertise to expedite processing of these cases.

Learn and implement federal and international laws regarding rights of immigrant foreign nationals. The State, assisted by federal experts, can provide guidance to child welfare organizations and local advocates on services offered by foreign consulates. For example the Mexico Consulate, with offices in Tucson, Yuma and Phoenix, facilitates visits with deported parents or relatives already residing in Mexico, arrange participation in CPS cases, and involves Mexico social services (DIF) in arranging family reunification. As well, guidance is needed on international placement and adoption issues, including compliance with international conventions.

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For interviews with Yali Lincroft, Seth Freed Wessler, Prof. Nina Rabin, Isabel Garcia, Lindsay Marshall of the Florence Project or local families contact Laurie Melrood, 520-561-5866

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