I recently read an article by CNN reporter, Rose Marie Arce, that discussed the issue of children who enter the U.S. illegally and are detained. The article's title gets straight to the point: "Detained immigrant children face legal maze in U.S." Arce discusses the problem that many detained children face upon crossing illegal: the legal battle that will decide where said children will end up. Most of these children do not have lawyers and must represent themselves in court; because of this arrangement many easily lose the battle and are sent back to where they came from. Unfortunately, many of these kids have crossed the border illegally to rejoin parents who have already done so and to escape from impoverished homes where a healthy future is not a likely scenario. Organization--like Kids in Need of Defense--exist to provide these kids with the representation they need to have a fair trial in which lawyers can clearly present the inadequacy of their homes and thus achieve an agreement which would allow such children to stay. Sadly, such groups are low on funding and, therefore, fail to provide these generous services to more than a few kids.
I found the article to be interesting because I feel that children are commonly overlooked when discussing the issue of illegal immigration.
I agree that the children of illegal aliens are definitely in a very tough situation. There's actually been a lot of controversy in recent news lately over the children of illegal immigrants, particularly in light of the Steve Li case.
ReplyDeleteIn this case, Steve Li, a Peruvian who fled with his parents (both Chinese nationals) for the United States when he was a child was recently discovered to be a illegal alien (years afterward, as he is now a student at SF City College). He was threatened with deportation to Peru where he had no family and friends (his parents could remain in the US because the Chinese government will not take illegal immigrants back from the US). Luckily, he was recently allowed to remain in the US. You can find more info here:
http://technorati.com/politics/article/breaking-news-city-college-student-steve/page-2/
Hopefully a proposed piece of legislature, the DREAM act, will be passed for the sakes of all of the children of illegal immigrants. It's short for Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, and it offers the children of undocumented immigrants an opportunity to attend school and therefore improve their lives. I really like this proposal because it acknowledges that these children often arrived in the US before they were too young to understand the concepts of borders and laws. And I personally don't think children should be punished for the actions of their parents.
This post reminded me of a movie I watched last semester for my History 7B class titled Under the Same Moon. This movie follows a single mother, Rosario, who crossed illegally to the United States from Mexico to find work like most immigrants. Her son, Carlitos, after the death of his grandmother, decides to find a way to cross the border. Let's not forget that the son looks to be only between the age of 9-11. Like you've said, this illustrates that even the children would cross illegally in search of their parents, who have crossed to escape impoverished homes. I do agree that children are often times overlooked when discussing about the illegal immigration because I don't think about children when I think of illegal immigration. Then after reading your post, I immediately thought of the movie and how illegal immigration affects children a lot. It is not fair that the children have to suffer consequences for something they have no control over. I hope children do get the representation they need to stay.
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