Born in the USA - Please don't take mom or dad away

American Born children of illegal immigrants have been the target in the change of the U.S. immigration policies. In recent months, the government’s crackdown on illegal immigrant workers has been the cause of separation between these children and their parents.

The U.S. Congress drastically changed the Illegal Immigration Reform to order Mandatory Deportation. (Washington Post, February 15, 2007).

-Now immigration officials are tracking down and deporting many illegal immigrants including those who may have legal spouses and children and those who don’t have criminal history or have pending applications to become legal residents.

- More than 26,000 illegal immigrants have been deported over the past 8 months. .
and- at one raid in a factory in Minnesota, the workers had at least 360 U.S. born children(Washington Post, April 2, 2007)
The result of all of these raids is a split in the families and as of now there is no solution to solve the problem.
There is an 11 year-old Tania del Valle, who has Asperger syndrome and it took her 3 months to understand that her father had been deported back to Mexico, then she wept uncontrollably for weeks.

- Finally Gerardo Antonio Mosque was deported after 30 years in the U.S., leaving behind a wife and 4 children. His 17 year-old son, frustrated over the loss of his father, committed suicide 3 months later and, of course, Mosque wasn’t allowed into the country to attend his son’s funeral.
. (Washington Post, March 25, 2007).
1. Three million American born children have at least one parent who is an illegal immigrant. Until recently, their parents’ illegal status had limited impact on these children’s lives but since the increase in raids against companies that employed illegal workers, their perspective has changed.

- Under rules adopted by Congress in 1996, a judge cannot allow an illegal immigrant to remain in the U.S. just because they have a child who is a U.S. citizen. That’s why now they have to face the dilemma: to leave their child to be raised by relatives in the U.S. or take him or her along to an unknown country that offers fewer opportunities.

B. Who is affected?
1. Children are the most affected as a cause of the government’s actions to track down and deport illegal immigrants. Toddles are left in day care centers and siblings suddenly are left in charge of younger brothers and sisters.

According to the Associated Press, March 11 2007 Ali Noorani said: “As a country, we should not put our youngest citizens at risk of hunger, homelessness and living without parents” “ Our immigration system has to be squared with values.
I. The Solution is in the hands of the Government of the U.S.
A. The Child Citizen Protection Act, sponsored by Jose Serrano NY, would allow immigration judges, when deciding whether to deport parents, to consider the interests of children who are U.S. citizens (Washington Post, March 25, 2007).

B. The choice presented to undocumented immigrants must be clean-cut: If they’ve avoided serious criminal charges, worked steadily jobs and mastered English, they should get the chance to pay fines for initial unauthorized entry and to pay all back taxes in order to qualify for legal residency. For those who don’t choose to do will go back home. ( USA Today, March 21, 2007).

The only way to achieve these solutions is to persuade the government to take actions concerning this issue.