skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Study: More AZ Kids Separated from Families, Despite New ICE Priorities

play audio
Play

Thursday, November 10, 2011   

PHOENIX - Federal immigration enforcement procedures implemented this year were supposed to refocus deportation efforts to target dangerous criminals. A just-released study finds that the new priorities are not fundamentally changing the Obama administration's overall immigration policy, which has led to unprecedented levels of deportations.

Families are paying the price, according to Seth Wessler, who wrote the report for the Applied Research Center.

"One of the many collateral effects of this policy is that children are now stuck in foster care, separated from their families, sometimes forever. Sometimes these children never see their families again."

At least 5,000 children who are U.S. citizens are separated from their undocumented parents, Wessler says, adding that 15,000 more will wind up in foster care in the next five years if nothing changes. Arizona is second only to California for the number of children in foster care who are separated from their undocumented parents.

When the Department of Homeland Security announced its new priorities this summer, it kept its goal of deporting 400,000 people a year. As a result, local-level immigration and law-enforcement officials adapted their procedures to fit the new federal guidelines, according to Wessler, so that routine immigration violations now are being classified as criminal.

"There's a growing fear in immigrant communities that communicating with local police will result in deportation. It's putting communities and families at significant risk."

Even women reporting domestic violence to police have been deported or detained hundreds of miles from their children if they lacked documentation, Wessler says.

The study finds little coordination between immigration enforcement and child-welfare services. It's often impossible for detained parents to pursue legal steps to reunite with their children, Wessler says, causing agencies and judges to move toward permanent termination of parental rights.

"Everybody agrees that children are better off with their families than in foster care. But when a parent is deported, that principle - that commitment to family unity - tends to go out the door."

The report calls for community-based solutions to keep families close together, and revised federal policies to ensure that deportation priorities actually target the most dangerous criminals.

The report is online at arc.org/shatteredfamilies.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
A report from the Tennessee HealthCare Campaign recommended the federal government needs to strengthen 340B drug pricing and other federal negotiation mechanisms to make needed medicines more readily available and less expensive for hospitals to purchase and administer. (Spotmatikphoto/AdobeStock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

A recent report examined how some rural Tennessee hospitals have managed to stay afloat despite financial challenges. The report includes interviews …


Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…


Nearly 13 million Americans receive health coverage through unique plans under both Medicare and Medicaid. They are known as Dual-Eligible Special Needs Plans. (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Medicare and Medicaid are key sources of health coverage for many Americans and some people qualify for assistance under both programs. With lagging …

Social Issues

play sound

A mix of policy updates and staffing boosts has helped to put wage theft enforcement on the radar in Minnesota, and officials leading the efforts are …

More than six in 10 Americans favor keeping the abortion pill mifepristone available in the U.S. as a prescription drug, while over a third are opposed, according to a Gallup poll. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

New research shows more than six in 10 abortions in the U.S. last year were medically induced, and U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto - D-NV - is …

Social Issues

play sound

Colorado is working to boost the state's agricultural communities by getting more fresh, nutritious foods into school cafeterias - and a new online …

Social Issues

play sound

Missouri lawmakers are concerned with protecting people from the potential risks of the increasing accessibility of AI-generated images and videos…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021