Latino Policy Coalition Seeks Presidential Executive Order To Reunite Children Separated From Detained/Deported Immigrant Parents

The Latino Policy Coalition (LPC)

requested that President Barack Obama issue an

Order that puts an end to the shattering of Latino families; and

begins the process of reuniting American citizen children with their

undocumented immigrant parents.

According to the

Families Report in 2011, over 48,000 mothers and fathers of at

least one U.S. citizen child were separated due to U.S.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detentions and deportations.

The proposed

Order would require, as a first step, the establishment of a

national registry of these children and their locations – so their

parents can find them and reunify with them.

During sweeps of Latino neighborhoods, conducted by ICE, parents were

unable to claim or make arrangements for their children to be returned

to them, or to be cared for by close family members. Many children have

been permanently separated from their parents’ love by county foster

care agencies. These federally-funded county programs have inadequate

policies to address the distinctive circumstances that undocumented

immigrant parents in detention or deportation proceedings face.

Copies of the LPC letter to President Obama, and the proposed

Order, have been transmitted to: U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz,

Chair – Democratic National Committee; Linda Chavez-Thompson, Vice Chair

– Democratic National Committee; Donna Brazile, Vice Chair of Voter

Registration & Participation – Democratic National Committee; U.S. Rep.

Charles A. Gonzalez, Chair – Congressional Hispanic Caucus; and Mayor

Antonio Villaraigosa, Chair of the 2012 Democratic National Convention;

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, Chair – Senate Hispanic Task Force.

The

Policy Coalition (www.latinopolicycoalition.org)

is a national non-partisan non-profit consortium of the country’s

leading Latino research organizations and scholars. LPC is chaired by

former San Francisco City and County Supervisor Jim Gonzalez, who is the

first author of a City of Sanctuary Ordinance in the nation. Sixty other

U.S. cities have passed similar legislation to protect the human rights

of immigrant communities.