Increased interior immigration enforcement action by ICE in the USA, in the form of high profile worksite raids and home raids, has resulted in the arrest, detention and deportation of record numbers of undocumented immigrants over the past several years. In the process, tens of thousands of children of undocumented immigrants, including citizen children, have seen their families torn apart, or experienced the effective deportation of the entire family to countries as foreign to them as they are to other American children. The harm threatened or visited upon the citizen child in these circumstances is palpable and long-lasting.
The primary goal of this report is to reveal, and to prompt meaningful and reasoned debate regarding, the deficiencies in this country’s immigration laws and enforcement scheme relative to the interests of our citizen children.
