Deporting Fathers in the Name of Homeland Security

[babylonsister]

Deporting Fathers in the Name of Homeland Security

by Joseph Nevins


As families celebrate Father’s Day, consider the case of Roxroy Salmon. The father of four U.S.-born children, Salmon has lived in the United States for more than 30 years. Yet the Department of Homeland Security now threatens to deport him to Jamaica, a country where he has not resided for decades, due to minor drug convictions from more than 19 years ago for which he served no time. This would effectively deny his children their father by permanently exiling him from his family and their common homeland.

Salmon’s story is hardly exceptional. Each year the federal government deports tens of thousands of non-citizens, many of them with U.S. citizen children, to countries to which they often have tenuous ties. By doing this, the federal government seriously injures children and families, and produces large numbers of a particular type of refugee.

With immigration reform on the table once again, we must restore basic human rights protections to would-be deportees and their children. This would help reverse the massive growth in deportations and divided families brought about by increasingly harsh immigration policing.

According to a report published in April by Human Rights Watch, deportations separated more than one million family members in the United States from a parent or spouse between 1997 and 2007. More than 70 percent of them were the result of non-violent criminal offenses, including possession of marijuana or traffic violations. One-fifth involved individuals who were lawfully present in the United States, sometimes for decades.

The vast majority of the deportees have been undocumented immigrants. An estimated five million children of unauthorized immigrants reside in the United States, more than three million of whom are U.S. citizens. By deporting many of their parents, according to a report released in March by the law firm of Dorsey & Whitney for the Urban Institute, the federal government is doing long-term damage—financial, emotional, psychological, behavioral and educational—to American children.

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/21-0

[imdjh]

1. Any father who is arrested is separated from his family.

Some are sent to prison, and some are sent back to the country from which they illegally immigrated to the US. All in all, I would prefer the latter, wouldn't you?

[babylonsister]

2. Not many Americans wind up in jail for traffic violations, do they.

But these fathers can be separated from their American children? No, I'd prefer we find a humane way to keep the dads here.

[imdjh]

3. They aren't being deported for traffic violations.

If you are a US citizen or a legal resident alien, a ticketable traffic offense will not get you jailed or deported. So stop playing that game.

[babylonsister]

4. Guess you didn't bother reading the article...

and stop being so insulting.


According to a report published in April by Human Rights Watch, deportations separated more than one million family members in the United States from a parent or spouse between 1997 and 2007. More than 70 percent of them were the result of non-violent criminal offenses, including possession of marijuana or traffic violations. One-fifth involved individuals who were lawfully present in the United States, sometimes for decades.

[imdjh]

7. Yes, I did read the article, and I specified "ticketable traffic violations" in my post

Sorry, but I'm not buying the Human Rights Watch's bullshit on this. There are plenty of traffic offenses which are not minor, and for which an alien ought to be deported. When you are a guest in a country, you are under a special expectation of law abiding behavior. Driving without a license, driving without insurance, reckless driving, DUI, leaving the scene are all traffic offenses. If you can show me where a legal resident alien has been deported for running a stop sign or 10 miles over- then I shall reconsider part of my position.

A ticketable traffic offense is one for which you would not normally be arrested.

[Obamanaut]

5. Are these the American children who are American by virtue of

merely having been born here, with parent or parents who may or may not by legal immigrants? If so, perhaps this would be the season to revisit and revise the 'anchor baby' rule.

[imdjh]

8. Typically stupid shit in law.

If you are born to American parents in Egypt, then you are a US citizen.
If you are born to Egyptian parents in the US, then you are a US citizen.

How does that makes sense to anyone other than the Supreme Court, especially when it was perfectly clear that it was not the intent of the 14th Amendment to confer citizenship on the children of visiting foreign nationals?

[imdjh]

6. Salmon arrived illegally in the US in 1977

In his first two years in the country he was convicted of drug offences. ("I was set up.")

In 1989, Salmon pled guilt to drug possession and the sale of narcotics. ("I was set up.")

“Citizens break the law don’t they,’’ said Maria Muentes, co-founder of Families for Freedom, an advocacy organisation for immigrants facing deportation, who is working on Salmon’s case, “They are tried and they are punished, but after do they have additional punishments for the rest of their life?”

Yes, Maria, but they are CITIZENS. They have the RIGHT to remain in the country. ILLEGAL aliens do not have that right- and the US has no reason to allow such people to remain in the US.

Since the 1996 laws were passed, more than 670,000 immigrants have been deported due to criminal convictions. Human Rights Watch reports that these deportations have separated 1.6 million families.


Not that it matters, but I would love to know how it is that 670K illegals being deported separates 1.6M families.

[JonQ]

9. I didn't realize it was a basic human right

to reside illegally in this country and face no punishment for that, or any other crime you commit. It's sorry for the kids, but that's a result of the parents actions.

Should we punish parents the differently than non-parents?

[proteus_lives]

10. It's not.

But people like to pretend there's nothing wrong with illegal immigration.

[JonQ]

11. Not illegal anymore, "undocumented" is the new catch phrase

I think next it will be "guest immigrants".