US: Parents of American Children Summarily Deported | WPN World People News

The US government is summarily deporting parents of US citizen children apprehended at the border despite their deep ties to the United States, Human Rights Watch said. President Barack Obama’s planned executive action on immigration should include relief for family members at the border.

Migrants caught at the border are usually deported through expedited processes that allow them no opportunity to make claims about their ties to the United States, including whether they have US citizen children. Based on new Human Rights Watch analysis of US government data, some 50,000 migrants caught at the border and deported from the US each year have US citizen children.

“Each year, the US is summarily deporting tens of thousands of migrants who are crossing the border to be with their American children,” said Antonio Ginatta, US advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “If President Obama is serious about protecting family members who live in fear of deportation, his executive action should stop summary deportation and punishment of border crossers with families inside the United States.”

President Obama is considering granting temporary legal status to millions of unauthorized immigrants in the United States with US citizen, permanent resident, or otherwise authorized children by the end of 2014, according to news sources. Obama should also reform border enforcement policies to recognize that many people now summarily deported as illegal border crossers have deep roots in the United States.

Just after he was deported to Honduras in September 2014, “Jesus R.” told Human Rights Watch that he had lived a total of twenty years in the United States and has five US citizen children. He said he had been deported four times and had been convicted of illegal re-entry but that he would try to cross back into the United States. “I need to be with my children,” he said. “My youngest was born and I don’t know him.”

The Human Rights Watch analysis of government data received through the Freedom of Information Act found that in 2011 and 2012, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) processed for deportation an estimated 100,000 parents of US citizen children, representing about 15 percent of people apprehended by the agency. Of those parents, an estimated 40 percent had been deported previously.

The Human Rights Watch analysis also found that about 20 percent of those referred for prosecution for illegal entry and re-entry by CBP in 2011 and 2012 had US citizen children. Indeed, those prosecuted for the crimes of illegal entry and re-entry were more likely to have US citizen children than those who were apprehended by CBP but not charged with these crimes.

Federal prosecutions for illegal entry and re-entry regularly sweep up people who enter the United States – often repeatedly – seeking to return to their families. Illegal entry – entering the country without authorization – is a misdemeanor. Illegal re-entry – re-entering after deportation – is a felony. The government prosecutes these migrants in addition to deporting them. Prosecutions of illegal entry have increased by 1,400 percent and of illegal re-entry by 300 percent over the past 10 years and now, taken together, outnumber prosecutions for all other federal crimes. A large number of people prosecuted end up in costly and overcrowded federal prisons, some for months or even years, before deportation.

Obama’s executive order should end summary deportations of people with deep ties to the United States and instead allow them a hearing in immigration court, Human Rights Watch said. The order should also discontinue detention of such migrants, as well as Operation Streamline and similar programs promoting their prosecution for illegal entry and re-entry, and enact national guidelines recommending against prosecution for illegal entry and re-entry if a migrant has close family ties or fears violence and persecution abroad.

“The people who are trying to reconnect with their families by crossing the border are much like those President Obama says he hopes to protect,” Ginatta said. “Even if the president’s executive action cannot reunite all families separated by harsh immigration enforcement policies, his order should end the prosecutions and summary deportations of people returning to be with their American children.”

Source: Human Rights Watch