Deportation of Immigrant Parents Affects

Many young immigrants have protested against the deportation of their families because they were born in the U.S with parents or guardians that weren’t. Deporting the parents of immigrants not only has an effect on the children, but the government, the economy, and the society of the world as well. What our current president is failing to understand is that deportation, in general, creates a byproduct that we have to live with. Deportation is a cruel way of giving someone a dream or goal and then deliberately placing obstacles in their way so they can not achieve that goal or dream. Parents of minors who are American citizens should not be deported because it’s traumatizing for the minors, a waste of the government’s money, and against their natural-born rights.

Immigration is the international movement of people who were born in a different country to another country which they are not native to. Most of the time, they leave their native land because of civil wars, freedom of religious belief, or to start a better life. Immigration started in the 1600s when Europeans, slaves, and the British started settling in the U.S. Fast forward to the late 1800s, because of the growth in industrialization, the second wave of immigrants hit the U.S. Between 1880 and 1920 more than 20 million nonnatives moved and settled in the U.S for work in factories. Ellis Island was the first immigration station located in New York. Between 1882 and 1954, about 12 million immigrants came through that station. 1907 was when U.S immigration peaks. Around WWI new restrictions were created such as the Immigration Act of 1924, which limited the number of immigrants allowed into the U.S yearly. Other restrictions were more direct such as US border control. 

Fast forward to WW2, because of labor shortages, a program that allowed Mexicans to enter temporary just for work was created. To just skim through, The quota system of 1921 was a system that established the max number of people who could enter the U.S. from each country. This system stopped European and Japanese from entering into the U.S. Simpson-Manolo Act of 1986 was an attempt to control illegal immigration into the U.S. Introduced in 2001, the DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act) was a way Congress could track the legal status of immigrants who came to the U.S for education. It also provides a path to citizenship. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA administrative designed to protect eligible nonnative children from deportation but, it does not a path to citizenship. Present-day, Trump deports immigrants of all nationalities to “protect the nation” and build a wall. (History.com Editors, 2018) helped me develop my background.

Deportation weighs on the government’s finance. There are multiple steps in the process of deportation; costs of court time, lawyers, judges, and juries. There are also immediate costs such as the cost of ICE (U.S. Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and the cost of large vehicles to move them. Because of this, there is a backlog of over 500,000 deportation cases and counting. Increased deportation will only escalate these costs. For example in “Why mass deportations are costly and hurt the economy” states, “Deportations have some immediate costs as well. These include the costs of hiring more U.S. Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to round up undocumented immigrants. They also create court costs. Court costs are large: paying for judges and lawyers is expensive. There is currently a backlog of over 500,000 deportation cases already, which on average have been open for over 600 days.

 Increased deportations will only amplify these costs. And then there is the opportunity cost of not being able to put those resources to another use...”(Koerner, 2019) Deportation is a waste of the government’s money. This money could easily go to natural resources for schools. I personally feel that the president has his priorities all wrong. Trump is working so hard to push out stereotypes of immigrants. He is separating children from their families and thinks that it is a great achievement. According to “For Thousands of Immigrant Children, Separation Was Just the Beginning” it reveals, “News last week revealed that the Trump administration detained nearly 70,000 children in immigration custody in the past year, surpassing all other countries in the world and reaching unprecedented levels for the United States.” (Rocketto, 2019) The tyrant, and his loyal kingsmen show no remorse or guilt for their actions. Trump is proud of the number of immigrant children he has detained and it terrifying.

Immigrants come to the U.S for a better life and with that comes bills. Backed up bills create debt. When they are found and taken, that debt they have developed can not be fulfilled. This generates issues for lenders’ programs and their financial system. To back this up, in “Why mass deportations are costly and hurt the economy” it comes out with, “To start with undocumented immigrants are able to amass debt in the U.S., and being deported makes it less likely they’ll honor it. This imposes risks on the financial system and on lenders in particular.” (Humphery-Jenner, 2019) What’s the point of deporting immigrants with debt? Immigrants come to the U.S with children or births in the U.S that they have to take care of, but when the parents are deported, the children are left to be taken care of by the government, which creates cost. This source also states, “As these children are not financially independent, deporting their parents can lead to childcare costs and other indirect costs that will be borne over time. These stem from the impact of separating families. A stable family environment leads to better educational and career outcomes while helping to reduce criminality. Separating them clearly jeopardizes these positive outcomes. It also risks increasing poverty, which, in turn, could worsen educational outcomes. This reduces future tax revenue and increases future welfare expenditure.”(Humphery-Jenner, 2019) Deporting parents has created many lawsuits against the government. Now the government has to pay for lawyers, judges, and court time. Deportation is costly and tired. It’s an unhuman way of ripping families apart. Families who wanted a great life in America.

Deporting the parents of the minors traumatizes them and changes the events of their future. Detention camps are a perfect example of this. These detention centers take the time to separate families from each other, cage them, and not feed the immigrants. It’s dehumanizing. Immigrants have rights too, they are human. This is better described in “Kids Describe In Their Own Words The Dire Conditions Inside A Border Detention Center” It states, “Immigrant children and teens held in US detention centers along the southern border described being cold and hungry while crowded into cages with little or no access to showers, clean clothes, or even a place to sleep. Some recounted how they had been separated from parents or grandparents. Teen mothers said they struggled to keep their babies clean and warm. Some young children had no one to care for them except for other child detainees.”(Koerner, 2019) Immigrant children are being traumatized because of the government’s actions. A child separated from their parents because of their illegal status is associated with poverty. It is said that without a good role model the children will resolve to violence and criminal activity and will not have a promising future.

 It is hard to live with the consequences that their parents are suffering as much emotional and physical pain as them. These events will affect the child as he/she grows up. These events are so damaging to the child that it could physically affect the person as well. Not even the current president is doing anything about this situation. Trump is proud of the fact that he is treating children in the most inhumane way. In my opinion, he treats immigrants worse than animals. All because of the fact that they are not US citizens. To back this up, in “For Thousands of Immigrant Children, Separation Was Just the Beginning” it states, “In immigration detention centers across the country, the Trump administration continues to warehouse migrant children and families in de facto internment camps under inhumane living conditions. With Trump's blessing, children are being locked up in cages without adequate food or water. Many are going without bathing, clean changes of clothes or other basic sanitary needs, like toothbrushes.” (Rocketto, 2019) Children are going through hell because of the president that is supposed to be helping and caring for them. They are being held in such inhumane conditions with Trump’s blessing, meaning that he is allowing this. Children, innocent babies are being treated worse than animals. If the current president is capable of doing this, he is definitely capable of doing much worse things.

Most of the detention centers do not follow the three critical categories of legal protection that are necessary when providing shelter to immigrants. One can say that the major of the detention center and its employees are breaking the law. There are many interviews that basically state that no one category is being followed. According to “Rights of Children in the Immigration Process” it states, “This memorandum summarizes three critical categories of legal protections that must be provided to immigrant children, whether they are traveling alone or accompanied by a parent or guardian, who are apprehended by the government and placed in immigration detention: 

1. access to relief in full and fair immigration proceedings; 
2. detention in the least restrictive and most humane settings possible; and 
3. legal representation in their immigration proceedings.” (Newell, 2014) 

Based on what my sources say, not many detention centers follow these three key principles and not following them lead to harsh, vulnerable, and fatal conditions for immigrants.  The children are being snatched away from the detention camps. They treat the children so poorly, keep them in such an unsanitary and exposed place that the children vulnerable to other monsters, people that are in the black market. The CBP (Customs and Border Protection) is basically giving away personal information on who to grab and sell as it is stated in this source, “Troublingly, advocates have reported that CBP is failing to fulfill its statutory mandates to screen unaccompanied Mexican children and that they are still vulnerable to persecution, trafficking, and abuse. Among the reported problems are CBP’s lack of child welfare expertise, its inadequate training and screening forms, and its failure to interview children in a manner or in environments likely to elicit information that would indicate whether the minor is a potential victim of trafficking or abuse and whether the child can and does voluntarily agree to return to Mexico.”(Newell, 2014) It must be so scary to live in such a vulnerable and unstable environment.

Immigrants come to America looking to find the “American Dream”. Instead they get more heartache, separation from their loved ones, and the cruel reality of the way the government works, through deportation. The children of immigrants have as much as a purpose as any other child in the U.S but the government doesn’t see them in that way. They see children and parents as hoodlums. The government takes parents away from children, creating many mental issues for both parties. Parents of minors who are American citizens should not be deported because it’s traumatizing for the minors, a waste of the government’s money, and against their natural-born rights.

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