Posted on 06/08/2008 6:50:23 PM PDT by World_Events
Yesenia Rangel, 12, looked out her window on a Friday morning in February and saw several officers with the letters "ICE" on their sleeves.
Yesenia immediately called her neighbors to warn them that immigration officers were outside their Compton apartment building. Then she watched in tears as officers handcuffed her father and took him away.
"I thought, 'I'm never going to see my dad again,' " said Yesenia, a U.S. citizen by birth.
As federal authorities expand immigration enforcement in California and throughout the nation, teachers, mental health professionals and immigrant rights advocates are raising concerns about the effect on children like Yesenia who are U.S. citizens.
Last month, a California congresswoman held a hearing on the raids' consequences for children.
"The administration must take the necessary steps to ensure that these raids are conducted in a humane fashion and they are protective to kids, not harmful," said Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Petaluma).
During the hearing, an elementary school principal from the Bay Area city of San Rafael, testified that local immigration raids in 2007 traumatized children and resulted in high absenteeism and low test scores.
National Council of La Raza President Janet Murguia testified that immigration agents instilled fear among children by conducting enforcement operations near public schools and Head Start programs. The Latino civil rights organization released a report last year that found several children were left to fend for themselves when their parents were detained.
According to the report, about 5 million children in the U.S. have an undocumented parent and two-thirds of those children are U.S. citizens.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Ah gee ... I’m all choked up ...
Too f’n bad.
I love how it’s law-enforcement’s fault and not the fault of the illegals that put their family in such a damaging position. That kid shouldn’t be aiding them by calling and warning her neighbors. Great to have a 12 year old already working against our system. Disgusting.
Perhaps the parents should have thought about their kids/future kids feelings before they entered this country illegally.
What a crock. You can make this “what about the effect on the kids” argument for anyone that gets arrested.
A resposnible parent would take their daughter with them as they are returned to their homeland.
She can get to know the relatives there.
yep, you could make that argument. What about all the gang members in prison, for example? They aren’t able to be good fathers to their children because they are in prison. But what is society supposed to do? Carried to an extreme, no criminal with dependent children could ever be arrested or sent to prison.
Sounds like the bastards should stay home...to “protect the children.”
It is truly sad what these undocumented parents have done to bring children into the world in a country where they don’t have citizenship. And put all of the pressure on the children.
They will have to answer to a Higher Power for what they are doing to their children. Using them for their own selfish gain.
U.S. born kids feel the effects of all kinds of raids to arrest their criminal parents. Before embarking on a life of crime these people should have thought about the effect on their kids, not whine when they get caught.
I hope our kakistocracy folks in Washington, D.C. ain't handing out taxpayer money to pay for this campaign.
The problem with punishment is that we think we're civilized by creating a punishment that separates fathers from their families by imprisoning them.
If we were truly a civilized and developed society we'd move punishment more toward immediate physical consequence rather than prison.
For example, we could stop using prison for drug pushers and cane them in the public square. That way we could punish the act, discourage the crime, reinforce societal standards, and still have “dad” home by sundown. The criminal's kids still have their father, if he lives, and we save many tens of thousands of dollars per year housing non-violent felons and paying to support their families, while reducing the number of single-parent children.
They knew they were breaking the law when they decided to victimize their children in such fashion.
As for the “Bay area principal” and La Raza, they need to go suck down a whole shovel full of that stuff they are shoveling so successfully. (For anyone who's interested, absenteeism and low test scores are a too common epidemic amongst our illegal invaders.)
“A responsible parent would take their daughter with them as they are returned to their homeland.”
My thoughts exactly. Is there some law that prevents a child returning to Mexico (or wherever) with his/her parent?
If not, then it is the FATHER’S fault that he is separated from his child, because it is the FATHER who declines to bring his child back with him to their country of origin.
"AMERICAN TAXPAYERS FEEL THE EFFECTS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT FLOODS" ? ? ?
They shouldn’t be citizens... their parents are here illegally. They’re anchor babies.
It makes me ashamed. The poor darlings. Open the borders wide. Let them all in. Oh wait, they already have.
Our government has become pathetic.
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