Deported Parents, Stolen Infants: Your Family-Friendly Government
Published June 18, 2009 @ 08:30PM PT
The Mississippi Department of Human Services recently decided an immigrant woman was an unfit mother in part because she didn't speak a language they had heard of. The child was put up for adoption without the mother's consent. Since the mother was from Mexico, the agency assumed she spoke Spanish and provided her a Spanish-speaking interpreter instead of one who actually spoke her indigenous language. MIRA has more information on how to reunite this child with her mother. We've seen this type of baby theft before.
But for real expertise on breaking up families, you need to go to Sheriff Joe Arpayaso or ICE itself.
Sheriff Joe employs local police to go after immigrants instead of actual criminals, in order to separate nine-year-old children like Katherine Figueroa from their parents.
And Barack Obama's ICE splits up families each and every day, leading immigrant rights organizations to organize a lawsuit against the government on behalf of children like Sara and her sister Salome:
5-year-old Sara Bedoya Sanchez comforted her sister Salome, 3, who played with a paper sign pinned to her chest reading "Don't Leave me alone."
"I came today because I want to stay with my mommy here," said Sara, who was born in South Florida, but whose mother came from Medellin, Colombia, through Mexico, crossing the Rio Grande on foot nearly a decade ago.
Meanwhile, DHS has paroled three teenagers back into the U.S. who were deported last month by CBP. The government can't figure out its own immigration policy, with the right hand routinely undoing the left hand's shoddy work. This level of confusion and disorganization is more befitting a banana republic than exactly what we've come to expect from the immigration agencies over the years.
The system needs reform, like yesterday. I think we need one of these.
[Image: AP Photo/Lynne Sladky]
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Comments (5)
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David is an attorney in Philadelphia, PA, where he helps immigrants to the U.S. navigate the complex immigration legal system. Views he expresses at change.org are his alone and don't represent the views or opinions of his employer, Nationalities Service Center. The information contained on this site is intended for educational and advocacy purposes only.
I know that some of you don't have time to follow the links, but I thought this story was well worth a glance. Here are the highlights:
More than 100 kids sue over parents' deportations
By Laura Wides-Munoz
AP Hispanic Affairs Writer / June 17, 2009
MIAMI—Ronald Soza celebrated his 10th birthday Wednesday with cake and a serenade by more than 100 other children and their parents.
His own family: absent. His mother was recently deported back to Nicaragua. His father rarely ventures out in public in fear of a similar fate. Now Soza and the other children -- all U.S. citizens whose parents face deportation -- are demanding a say in the immigration debate.
They are suing President Barack Obama, asking a court to halt the deportations of their parents until Congress overhauls U.S. immigration laws.
The children, who gathered Wednesday at the Miami nonprofit American Fraternity to draw attention to their cause, say their constitutional rights are being violated because they will likely have to leave the country if their parents are forced to go.
Some children said their families didn't have enough money to pay for school supplies because the breadwinning parent had been deported, and some are at risk of losing their homes. They also say they are suffering psychological and physical hardship.
"My grades went from A's to C's when my mom had to leave," said Ronald.
Nearby, 5-year-old Sara Bedoya Sanchez comforted her sister Salome, 3, who played with a paper sign pinned to her chest reading "Don't Leave me alone."
"I came today because I want to stay with my mommy here," said Sara, who was born in South Florida, but whose mother came from Medellin, Colombia, through Mexico, crossing the Rio Grande on foot nearly a decade ago.
Nora Sandigo, the head of the Fraternity, originally brought the case on behalf of the children against the Bush administration. She refiled it in January in Miami and a hearing is scheduled for August.
Sandigo said she is frustrated that the Obama administration hasn't done more to address immigration reform.
"Today these children's voices are not heard," Sandigo said as dozens of youngsters squirmed and twirled their flags on a rug before her, "but tomorrow these U.S. citizens will be voting."
...
Sandigo says many of the children's parents came to the U.S. before 1996 immigration changes made it more difficult for them to become legal residents. When they came, they had a valid expectation that if they stayed out of trouble for seven years, they could eventually become legal residents, she has argued.
Immigration experts say the case has a tough road in the courts because Congress explicitly made the law retroactive.
Posted by a d on 06/19/2009 @ 06:40PM PT
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According to the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, 'the hospital's social worker reported "evidence" of abuse and neglect based on the following:
* The "baby was born to an illegal [sic] immigrant;"
* The "mother had not purchased a crib, clothes, food or formula." (Most Latina mothers breast feed their babies).
* "She does not speak English which puts baby in danger."'
This is disgraceful! I hope that everyone will follow the link to NNIRR and write or call the presiding Judge and the MS Department of Human Services to STOP this illegal adoption!
http://www.nnirr.org/action/index.php?op=read&id=229&type=0
Here are highlights from the article:
Immigrant Fights to Keep Baby Girl
Chris Joyner -- Clarion Ledger .com
Immigration advocates are incensed over a Mexican woman's fight to keep custody of her child after she was reported as an unfit mother two days after giving birth in a Pascagoula hospital.
An e-mail news release sent last week by the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance accuses Singing River Hospital and the Mississippi Department of Human Services of "stealing immigrants' babies." The accusation involves Cirila Baltazar Cruz, who gave birth to her daughter, Ruby, Nov. 16 at the hospital.
According to documents obtained by The Clarion-Ledger, staff at the hospital filed a report two days later listing Ruby as a neglected child.
...
Court records obtained by The Clarion-Ledger indicate Cruz is charged with neglecting her child, in part, because "she has failed to learn the English language" and "was unable to call for assistance for transportation to the hospital" to give birth. Her inability to speak English "placed her unborn child in danger and will place the baby in danger in the future," according to the document.
In its release, MIRA disputes the accusations leveled against Cruz and says Cruz speaks an indigenous Mexican language, Chatino, spoken by fewer than 50,000 people, and speaks "very little Spanish and no English." The hospital provided only a Spanish-language interpreter, the release says.
...
Singing River and MIRA officials would not comment further on the case because it is in Jackson County Youth Court. Court Facility Administrator Cynthia Wilson said court rules prohibit her or any court official from discussing the case.
The Southern Poverty Law Center is assisting in Cruz's defense, and Mary Bauer, director of the center's Immigrant Justice Project, said the court's gag order prohibits Cruz or her advocates from commenting specifically about the case. However, Bauer said this is not the first time speakers of indigenous languages have found themselves at odds with welfare workers.
...
Bauer said immigrants who speak an indigenous language "often they are treated as not very bright Spanish speakers" by state agencies and the courts, she said.
"That's what happened in the case in Tennessee. They had a Spanish-speaking interpreter, but the woman didn't speak much Spanish. It appeared as if she was uninterested in the proceeding or her daughter because she didn't speak up."
Indigenous-language speakers are not an insignificant part of the immigrant population in America, she said. There are 100,000 Mixtecos in California, she said. "It's something we have to come to grips with. Not everyone who looks a certain way speaks Spanish," she said.
Posted by a d on 06/19/2009 @ 07:02PM PT
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Great information Schehera! These children have a right to sue over their parents deportation. To separate family's is an inhumane practice in our country. Justice from a lawsuit will never heal the pain and suffering these children have faced but to win a lawsuit must give a sense that at least the pain and suffering is acknowledged.
Posted by Mary Pranzatelli on 06/22/2009 @ 12:08AM PT
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First I want to say what a beautiful child is holdign that sign. second, how sad it is that the Mexican government can't provide better for her family that they are forced to be refugees and the place they are seeking are closing the doors on them. i hope the Mexican people are watching Iranians fighting for change in thier country. If Mexico changes we would be able to bring in people in an systmeatic process. Iran doesn't have a USA they can run to. there is no neighbor to the north that will feed them. They have to face their government head on. Good for them for demanding their basic human rights. hope mexicans will do the same.
Posted by Hilary Johnson on 06/21/2009 @ 03:30PM PT
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I also hope that Mexico can continue to develop economically and distribute the benefits of that progress more evenly so that people don't feel compelled to leave their homes for the north to feed their families.
Public protest is often used as a political tool in Mexico--Mexicans have been protesting their government for a long, long time:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emiliano_Zapata
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2008/jan/20/featuresreview.review4
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5161862.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6319093.stm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/mexico/2656944/Mexicos-drug-wars-provoke-mass-protests.html
Change has come, but it's been slow and it's left a lot of people behind.
Also the southern state of Chiapas has been home to an established insurgency since 1994:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiapas#Late_20th_century:_indigenous_disaffection
That's something the clerics in Iran wouldn't likely permit ... might just wipe out everyone in the area instead. Also, Mexico's democratic bona fides are much stronger than Iran's, though it's not been that long since they've had a legitimate multi-party system.
Posted by Dave Bennion on 06/21/2009 @ 06:07PM PT
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