Blame the Illegal immigrants, not the enforces for putting their children at risk
By Fernando Quintero, Rocky Mountain News November 1, 2007
GREELEY - A study released Wednesday on the impact of immigration work site raids on children showed that this northern Colorado community was the most deeply affected of three communities that had large immigration enforcement sweeps.
Last year, in a raid on the Swift & Co. meat-processing plant in Greeley, 201 children had at least one parent among the 273 arrested, according to the report commissioned by the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Hispanic advocacy group, and the Urban Institute, a nonprofit, minority affairs think tank.
In all, there were more than a dozen pregnant women taken into custody.
Federal officials and supporters of stricter immigration enforcement criticized the study, saying the blame for such consequences was misplaced. They say that parents who immigrate illegally are responsible for the effect the enforcement has on their children.
The report focused on communities that experienced large- scale work site raids within the past year: Greeley; Grand Island, Neb.; and New Bedford, Mass.
It concludes that the raids caused children and infants to become separated from their parents, left families without their primary breadwinners, and caused emotional trauma for children of parents who were arrested.
Marina, a Guatemalan native who declined to give her last name because she and her husband are undocumented, was seven months pregnant when she was arrested in the Swift raid. She was released the same day, but her court hearing isn't until Oct. 4, 2008. She awaits her fate, and that of her 6-month-old U.S.- born son.
"I am still afraid to go out," she said, teary-eyed, as she recalled the morning she was taken to a detention center in Aurora.
Her family is one of 24 in the Greeley area awaiting a court date to find out if they will remain in the country.
"Nothing but poverty and violence awaits us in Guatemala," said Marina.
Two-thirds of the children whose parents were arrested in Greeley are citizens, according to the report.
The report comes two weeks after the Government Accountability Office, the investigatory arm of Congress, found Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers lacked guidelines in choosing whom to deport, often separating sole caregivers from children.
But ICE said parents are to blame for the harm from the raids.
"The responsibility for the negative impacts of our work-site enforcement actions lies squarely on the shoulders of those who violated our immigration laws," said Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Carl Rusnok.
"It should not be on the agency responsible for upholding the law," he added.
Bob Dane, spokesman for the Federation for American Reform, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that supports reduced immigration, said illegal immigrants were "hiding behind their children as a justification not to be deported."
"Every time we have a work-site enforcement action, the blame is shifted to the agency that is simply doing their job," he said. "The blame needs to go to parents who put their children in jeopardy, and employers who are hiring people illegally."
Ricardo Romero, a Greeley activist who was among the immigrant advocates at a news conference Wednesday to announce the report's findings, said ICE went into the Swift plant with 170 warrants, but ended up arresting 273.
"Why didn't they come and arrest (the people who were the subjects of warrants), instead of making such a large sweep?" he said.
"They say they want to deport people who are in the country illegally, but they're giving people court dates scheduled a year from now. In the meantime, these people have no permission to work or access to social services. It is up to us to keep these families alive."
Researchers visited Grand Island and Greeley, two of six sites where ICE officers conducted a coordinated raid at Swift & Co. meatpacking plants resulting in about 1,300 arrests. Those arrested were mostly from Mexico and Guatemala.
Large numbers of people arrested were moved out of state, separating them from their families. In Greeley, 46 out of 94 Guatemalans were transferred to Houston after the raid.
Rusnok said immigration agents release some arrested parents to care for their children, but that some parents did not tell officials that they had children.
"Throughout the arrest process, we ask repeatedly if they have children at home and if they are the primary caregivers," he said.
The report noted that many parents were afraid to disclose that they had children for fear that they, too, would be deported.
The study commissioned by the National Council of La Raza and the Urban Institute found that Greeley, one of three communities examined, was most affected by immigration raids over the past year.
66 percent of the children of adults arrested in the raids were U.S. citizens.
506 is the number of children whose parents were arrested at the three sites.
128 Mexicans were arrested in Greeley, the largest number among the three sites.
12 detainees were not released until nearly five months after the Greeley raid, the longest of the three sites.
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Oh, don't get me started! I am SO sick of these people coming here illegally and expecting that there should be no consequence. If things are so bad in their native countries, then they need to do something to change it. If they want to come to America, they can follow the legal process just like the millions of LEGAL immigrants. And to blame their childrens' "mental anguish" on immigration officials is just rubbish. Also, to complain that officials arrested more people than the number of warrants they had is just stupid. They can arrest as many illegals as they want. IT'S AGAINST THE LAW!!! I do agree that they should not keep them here for months awaiting trial. There's no need for a trial. Ship them home the same day they're arrested, and send their children with them. Save us all a lot of time and money.
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