MomsRising Blog, By Wendy Cervantes

Children of immigrants currently comprise nearly 1 in 4 of all U.S. children. It is estimated that more than 5 million of these children, the majority of whom are native-born U.S. citizens, live in mixed-status families with one or more undocumented parent. While the debate over comprehensive immigration reform has often overlooked these citizen children, inaction on immigration reform and ongoing enforcement measures are having a significant impact on thousands of America’s most vulnerable children.

Immigration enforcement activities by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and local law enforcement agencies operating under ICE have significantly increased over the past decade. According to a report by the DHS Inspector General’s Office, over 108,000 parents of U.S. citizen children were removed from the U.S. between 1998 and 2007. Furthermore, a 2007 report by the Urban Institute reveals that on average, one child is affected for every two adults arrested in a worksite raid. Findings such as these resulted in ICE’s adoption of humanitarian guidelines to minimize the instances of family separation for enforcement activities involving more than 25 arrests. However, these humanitarian guidelines do not apply to targeted home raids and individual arrests, which are the types of immigration enforcement currently experiencing rapid growth.

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