Americans talk big about human rights and how well we treat children. After a long career as a volunteer guardian ad-Litem, I beg to differ. Children in the U.S. have no rights and we are very comfortable treating them badly;
Ruben Rosario: Immigration raids leave traumatized children in their wake
Updated: 03/28/2009 09:27:39 PM CDT
“I want to remind people that family values do not stop at the Rio Grande River. People are coming to our country to do jobs that Americans won’t do, to be able to feed their families.” — Former President George W. Bush
I wonder what “W” would say about the 11-year-old Worthington, Minn., boy who returned home from school one day, oblivious to events that would alter his life forever, to find no one there except his 2-year-old brother, left to fend for himself.
Their parents were among the scores of Swift & Co. workers swept up in high-profile federal immigration raids in the winter of 2006 in Minnesota and several other states.
An uncle taking care of the younger child left the home in search of the parents amid news that some of those arrested would be sent to detention centers in Texas and Georgia. It took the man two days of searching to find out.
“The boy was absolutely terrified, but he did a fantastic job (of caring for his brother),” Sister Karen Thein, of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Worthington, told me this week.
I wonder what President Barack Obama would say, now that he’s captain of the government ship, about the impact similar raids a year later in Willmar, Minn., had on children.
“A clinical psychologist who met with affected families in Willmar concluded that the level of post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety rivaled that seen in war-torn countries like Bosnia,” according to “Severing a Lifeline: The Neglect of Citizen
Children in America’s Immigration Enforcement Policy,” a report released last week. “The kids can’t concentrate, and are being mistakenly diagnosed as having behavioral problems when their symptoms are actually caused by stress, depression and anxiety resulting from the raids,” the report continues. “Younger children are having frequent nightmares, are wetting their beds because they are so afraid.”
The result of an 18-month investigation, the report was prepared by Minneapolis-based Dorsey & Whitney law firm at the behest of the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan policy think tank in Washington, D.C.
It makes a strong case that the raids have done little to dent the illegal immigrant population. But what the raids have done is sever families and violate the civil and human rights of American-born children.
Because if you are born here, regardless of the legal status of your parents, you are a U.S. citizen. No ifs, ands or buts. And entering or staying in the country illegally is a civil, not criminal, offense.
The report, available online, is worth reading, regardless of where you stand on the immigration debate.
Some of the findings and facts culled from the report include: Of the approximately 5 million children of undocumented immigrants residing in the United States, more than 3 million are U.S. citizens.
The Urban Institute found that the 900 immigrants arrested in three work-site raids in recent years had 500 children among them, approximately two-thirds of whom were U.S.-born citizens.
Psychologists, teachers and family members have reported significant increases in anxiety, depression, feelings of abandonment, eating and sleeping disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and behavioral changes among children who have experienced the loss of a loved one or who witnessed a raid.
The report recommends: Changing legislation to allow a citizen child younger than 21 to petition for the lawful re-entry of a deported parent.
That Congress grant immigration judges the discretion to consider the “best interests” of the citizen child in deportation and removal proceedings.
The appointment of a guardian ad litem to protect and advocate for the interests of the child in all immigration proceedings.
U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement should develop guidelines for conducting home raids to ensure that enforcement actions are truly “targeted” and minimize the prospect of harm to children.
Thein, who spent 15 years doing missionary work in Guatemala, knew the family of the 11-year-old boy well before the raid at Swift.
Traumatized, the boy was never the same. His grades plummeted. He ultimately was deported, like his parents, to Guatemala. But he had company on his trip — his American-born brother, the kid he fed, changed and consoled in the aftermath of the raid.
“The human trauma resulting from the escalating enforcement actions was the real motivator for us, and what we learned in the process of our extensive investigation and research was eye-opening,” said Dorsey attorney James
Kremer, a co-author of the report. “The almost complete disregard for the rights and future of the affected children is remarkable, in my view, and far from what we should aspire to as a society.”
Rubén Rosario can be reached at rrosario@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5454.
ONLINE To read the full Dorsey & Whitney report on citizen children, go to
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