RICHMOND, Va. - As a U.S. Senate committee prepares to vote this week on a sweeping immigration reform bill, advocates for children say it contains critical provisions for protecting and helping immigrant youth. It includes a pathway to citizenship, and other provisions to keep families together.
According to Wendy Cervantes, vice president, immigration and child rights policy, First Focus Campaign for Children, one of the most important provisions would keep families from being torn apart, and give parents who are detained or deported more of a say in what happens to their kids.
"And what's happening to those children is that they're either going back to their parents to a country they may have never known, or they're staying behind here with family members or friends," she stated.
Cervantes said about 5000 children are in foster care in the U.S. because their parents have been detained or deported.
The proposed Senate bill would make it much harder to terminate parental rights because of immigration status. The legislation also provides a pathway to citizenship for 11 million immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally, including about 210,000 immigrants in Virginia.
Cervantes said the Senate bill eliminates federal restrictions to make it easier for states such as Virginia to offer in-state tuition to unauthorized immigrant children who've graduated from high schools in the state.
"It wouldn't require Virginia to provide in-state tuition for undocumented children in their state, but it would at least give them the ability to make that decision on their own without any penalty from the federal government," she said.
If the legislation passes the Senate Judiciary Committee this week, a full Senate vote is expected in June.
A link to the Senate immigration reform bill and amendments is at Judiciary.Senate.Gov.
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As the Trump administration continues to implement aggressive immigration policies, many Hispanic residents in Florida, a key voting bloc for Trump, are facing increased scrutiny and fear of deportation.
Eliseo Santana, a Puerto Rican veteran and civil servant with more than 30 years of service to his community, is among them. Santana serves as regional manager for the Alianza Center and recently spoke out against the current climate of discrimination and the demand for documentation targeting Hispanic individuals. He expressed his frustration and demanded respect from all levels of government.
"I insist that my rights as a citizen of the State of Florida be upheld," Santana emphasized. "And that our legislators respect and leave me alone and stop making laws that would empower people to discriminate against me, to select me because of my looks, just because I'm Hispanic."
The Trump administration's recent moves to tighten immigration from Venezuela and El Salvador have further heightened tensions within Hispanic communities. The policies are part of a broader strategy to curb immigration and have sparked widespread concern among Hispanic Americans, many of whom feel targeted based on their ethnicity.
Santana is a U.S. citizen by birth and stressed Puerto Ricans are often unfairly targeted despite their citizenship status.
"There are 21 nationalities that identify as Hispanic, and in the state of Florida," Santana pointed out. "Puertorriqueno are the number one and Puertorriqueno, Puerto Ricans, are U.S. citizens by birth. It is important for everyone to recognize that because someone looks Hispanic does not mean they're undocumented or they're a criminal."
The Trump administration's efforts to tighten immigration policies have hit Venezuelan immigrants in Florida especially hard, many of whom depend on Temporary Protected Status to live and work legally in the U.S.
Temporary Protected Status is a humanitarian program for individuals fleeing conflict or disaster and has been a lifeline for Venezuelans escaping their country's crisis. However, the administration's push to roll back Temporary Protected Status protections has left thousands in limbo, fueling outrage among immigrant advocates and Hispanic communities.
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Social and economic disruptions are among the impacts reported by Minnesota Latino support organizations as they monitor the Trump administration's mass deportation efforts.
A coordinated response is underway to assist those affected.
Adhering to his campaign pledge, President Donald Trump is putting pressure on federal agencies to scale up deportations of undocumented people.
Analysts say the numbers haven't moved much, but it's expected the White House will keep adding resources for enforcement.
Ryan Perez - organizing director with the Minnesota group organization Communities Organizing Latino Power and Action - said with the administration publicizing arrests, there's an added level of fear.
"We have people that are afraid to go shopping, to go to their cultural markets and grocery stories, because they assume that ICE would target those places," said Perez. "And some of those impacts are economic, but a lot of those impacts are social, and they're affecting our social fabric. "
He said more than 90 organizations across Minnesota are now assisting with things like legal defense when someone is detained, or social aid for families suddenly left without an income.
The coalition also is maintaining a flow of information to community members to know their rights, in hopes people won't be as afraid to venture out.
Federal agencies involved say they're following through on a mandate from the American people for increased enforcement.
Perez said COPAL facilitates the Immigrant Defense Network, with teams showing up to enforcement incidents as they happen to ensure federal agents aren't violating anyone's rights.
"There are due process rights that people have as citizens of other countries, as community members living here, working here," said Perez. "And we're investigating those situations."
Perez pointed to a recent raid in Rochester where several people were detained, despite their attorneys saying they had no violent criminal records - a key motivation highlighted by the Trump administration in carrying out these efforts.
The individuals were eventually released, but community members noted the enforcement disrupted operations at a local restaurant.
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As nationwide deportation efforts continue, new research examined the labor market of a past president to help forecast what could happen if President Donald Trump follows through on his plans.
The Obama administration deported more than 3 million people. Trump said he wants to deport more, to increase jobs for U.S. citizens. A new report from the University of Colorado said U.S. presidents have a long history of blaming immigration for the country's economic troubles, even when research shows the opposite.
Chloe East, associate professor of economics at the University of Colorado in Denver, said mass deportations and raids incite fear and leave vacant jobs U.S. citizens are unlikely to fill.
"We really don't see this substitution between unauthorized immigrants and U.S.-born workers in the way that we're promised we will by politicians," East reported. "In fact, the effect sort of goes even beyond this lack of substitution."
She noted the industries most likely to be affected are construction, agriculture, manufacturing and service jobs, with positions tending to be lower paid, tougher or more dangerous. East argued keeping such jobs filled actually helps to increase U.S. labor opportunities. About 17% of Illinois workers are immigrants, including some 55,000 seasonal farmworkers.
Inconsistencies about who exactly is being targeted by ICE agents raises concerns about racial profiling. A leaked memo shows efforts have pivoted from focusing on people committing crimes to migrant familiesand unaccompanied children with no criminal histories. Migrant workers make up about 20% of the U.S. workforce. East observed it is striking to see history repeating itself.
"Whether we're looking a few decades back or a hundred years back, the results are very consistent and very clear that mass deportations are not the solution to any economic troubles," East explained.
While deportation data since Trump took office has yet to be released, the majority of news releases on the ICE website involve people from Mexico or Latin America. ICE said it will release updated deportation data every quarter.
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