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Alabama Parents Prepare for the Worst: Separation from Their Kids
Hispanic families fearing arrest under draconian new immigration law start to draw up legal documents for care of children
Hundreds of parents in Alabama who fear being rounded up at any time and jailed or deported under the state's draconian new immigration law are making legal arrangements to have their children placed in the care of relatives or friends.
Students at an elementary school in Crossville, Alabama, where enrolment is about 65% Hispanic. Lawyers have reported a surge in approaches from Hispanic parents who fear they will be separated from their children. (Photograph: Jay Reeves/AP) Lawyers working with Hispanic communities throughout Alabama report a huge surge in recent days in approaches from Hispanic families so desperate about the threat posed by the new law that they are preparing for the worst: sudden separation from their own children. They are drawing up power of attorney letters – documents usually applied to property or business assets, but in Alabama almost exclusively now used for the safe keeping of children.
"This is a real human rights crisis," said Linton Joaquin of the National Immigration Law Center. "There's widespread panic, and though parents don't want to abandon their children they are seeking guardianships for them."
Shay Farley, legal director of a collective of Alabama lawyers called Appleseed, says they have already drawn up more than 200 power of attorney papers in just one town, Tuscaloosa. A similar clamour for legal help is reported across the state.
"These papers are normally designed to help people protect their main assets, and there can be no greater asset than children," Farley said.
Trini, an Hispanic mother who did not want to give her last name, took up power of attorney last week. She has arranged for her her two sons, aged 10 and 13, to be cared for by her niece, who is a US citizen.
"I'm afraid I could disappear without anyone knowing what's happened to me," she said. "I don't speak English well, so maybe the police won't understand me and who knows what would happen to me in jail."
Trini is in discussions with her family about leaving Alabama. But she is torn, because she does not want to take her sons, who were born in America and thus have US citizenship, out of school.
"They have a right to go to school. They are doing so well there. They play the trumpet and violin. That's why we're still here – because of the boys, because of their education."
Her eldest son, Jesus, said the new law was making him nervous and depressed. "At school we were taught about the Civil Rights period. This is the same thing – it's happening again," he said.
"I make good grades, so does my brother. We are normally at the top of our class. I try my hardest to be good. The people making this law, they need to put themselves in our shoes and think about how they're splitting families."
Hispanic parents are fearful about what would happen to their kids should they be rounded up under the new law. HB56 came into force at the end of September, and under its provisions police officers are required to check the immigration status of anyone they stop where there is a "reasonable suspicion" that the person might be undocumented.
Should the individual fail to produce valid immigration papers, they can be instantly sent to jail at the start of deportation proceedings.
Five states have now passed immigration laws similar to HB56, but Alabama is the only one that has been allowed by the courts to put elements of the law into effect. The federal Department of Justice, as well as a local coalition of groups and individuals, are both challenging the new law in the US appeals court for the 11th circuit that covers Alabama, Georgia and Florida.
The lawsuits argue that Alabama's clampdown on undocumented immigrants should not be allowed to proceed pending a ruling by the US supreme court, the highest court in the nation, on the general principle of whether the individual states or the federal government should determine immigration policy.
"Parents fear they are going to be picked up under the new laws and immediately deported – in essence they will be 'disappeared'. So they want to make arrangements to ensure that their children will be safe," said Olivia Turner of the Alabama branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Erica Suarez, 37, took out a power of attorney three days ago, vesting responsibility for her nine-year-old son should she be rounded up in her uncle, a US citizen. Suarez and her husband moved to Birmingham, Alabama from Argentina in 1998, staying in America after their visa expired. Over the past 13 years they've tried many times to acquire citizenship themselves, without success.
"I'm very scared," Suarez said. "The police can stop me and ask for my status, and if I don't have a driving licence take me to jail for 30 days. What happens to my son in that time?"
She said she decided to vest the power of attorney in her uncle because she didn't want her son going into a state-run home should she be picked up. Since the law came into effect on 28 September, Suarez has not left her house for fear of being detected, and her husband, who works as a landscape artist, no longer drives for similar reasons.
"This is so sad," Suarez said, crying on the telephone. "We came here for a better life, and were happy here. It's hard to go back – I have no home there, no job there. There's nothing to go back to."
Her son, who is not being named for his own safety, said: "I don't want to leave this state. I like it here, and I have lots of friends."
The boy was born in America and thus is a US citizen. Asked why he thinks the new law was introduced, he replied: "They don't want Hispanics here."
Rosa Toussaint Ortiz has agreed to become guardian to the three children of an undocumented mother in her town of Huntsville. Toussaint has US citizenship and works as a community services chaplain in the town.
She says she is not looking forward to the possibility of caring for three young children, but sees it as her duty. "I'm a very busy person and it would be very tough to have to care for them. But what else can I do? If I was in this situation I would want someone else to do this for me. So there's no choice."
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Show AllOne of the most heartbreaking aspects of slavery was the separation of families. I cannot read Frederick Douglass' autobiography without great sadness when he describes how his mother, who he barely knew, walked many miles at night just to snuggle with him for a few moments before heading back to the plantation of her "master". Here we have it again in Alabama. We need a new Underground Railroad.
The slavery from which these folks escaped, was the economic slavery of a corrupt socialist government in Mexico. It was their parents, not the citizens of Alabama, who broke the law. We don't need an underground railroad to escape from Alabama, so I presume you mean you support the coyote tunnels under the Rio Grande. This tragedy is real, because the parents chose not to take their own children with them when they return home.
It's evident from your post that not only you can't think clearly, but you can't even read in, presumably, your native language. You say that "the parents chose not to take their own children with them when they return home", however this article clearly states, and does it several times, that the parents are afraid that they will be arrested and unable to take care of their kids, or even contact anyone to let them know what happened to them:
"I'm afraid I could disappear without anyone knowing what's happened to me," she said. "I don't speak English well, so maybe the police won't understand me and who knows what would happen to me in jail."
"Hispanic parents are fearful about what would happen to their kids should they be rounded up under the new law."
"Parents fear they are going to be picked up under the new laws and immediately deported – in essence they will be 'disappeared'. So they want to make arrangements to ensure that their children will be safe,"
"I'm very scared," Suarez said. "The police can stop me and ask for my status, and if I don't have a driving licence take me to jail for 30 days. What happens to my son in that time?"
"She said she decided to vest the power of attorney in her uncle because she didn't want her son going into a state-run home should she be picked up."
The state department for child protective services will provide for the children, if the parents are apprehended as illegal alliens. Every effort will be made to re-unite the families, which is the policy of every such agency in the USA.
Parents don't become "disappeared" unless they care more about themselves than for their children. There is no law against them returning to their home.
How is your post relevant to my rebuttal to your previous post where you falsely state that "the parents chose not to take their own children with them when they return home?"
And what exactly does it mean that "Parents don't become "disappeared" unless they care more about themselves than for their children?" Actually, never mind. I don't expect you to say anything coherent anyway.
A true travesty, reminds me of stories of the days of slavery. Now to pass a law punishing the corporations for thier decades of illegal profits gleaned off the sweat and pain of these workers. I do however agree that felonious entry into this country by any person or group should be met with deportation at best and fines and prison at worst. Further, anyone hiring an undocumented worker for personal gain should be jailed and fined as well. The flow of illegal immigrants into this country has had disaterous consequnces for our society and must stop.
On a side note. The author needs to brush up on his english there are some inexcuseable grammatical and spelling errors in this piece unworthy of one who wrties for a living.
When you make people desperately poor through NAFTA and other policies designed by and for the 1%, as sure as the sun will shine the hungry will migrate to where they can make a living. Punishing the poor for such rational, necessary, and inevitable activity is not the way to solve the problems.
Hunger should be illegal, not the hungry.
Define freedom, Maybe you expect legal immigrants to continue generation after generation harvesting our food for shit wages and abuse by greedy employers. To keep food prices low we need slaves who will do what they are told and keep[ their mouths shut. Perhaps we could define their arrival as a form of manifest destiny. It worked for the white man.
It must have been awhile since you have talked to a legal immigrant. It takes quite a bit of money to immigrate to the U.S. or other places (think thousands of dollars or a sponsor and probation) Many immigrants have family living in the U.S., Canada, and Australia and it can take ten years. Interesting the U.S. is mostly a second choice destination.
police officers are required to check the immigration status of anyone they stop where there is a "reasonable suspicion" that the person might be undocumented.
Reasonable suspicion is code for being dark skinned.
This article doesn't mention that legal immigrants still in the process have the same concerns.
Ripping parents from their kids, brought to you by the Family Values folks!
Your choice would be to exterminate these over-developed and unwanted fetuses?
If one is planning to be a parent, then one should plan on providing a legal home as a part of the plan. Make the nest... then lay the egg. Naturally.
Right. No one in impoverished countries or countries experiencing political turmoil should have kids. And in China people should never have more than one or two children because it's against the law.
Thanks for clearing that up (although the unwanted fetuses reference seems from out of left field). I assume you'll be the one to tell them not to have children. Let me know how it goes.
"This is so sad," Suarez said, crying on the telephone. "We came here for a better life, and were happy here. It's hard to go back – I have no home there, no job there. There's nothing to go back to."
Unfortunately this is the risk one takes when entering a country illegally. Perhaps the employers of illegal immigrants should be required to pay for their relocation, as well as finding them jobs, and a home.
It is not fair to those who have paid the high fees, and waded through the mountains of paperwork to immigrate here legally. Subverting our legal system to get ahead in life, and get a better education for your children is criminal behavior. We know that you work hard, for poor wages, and are otherwise law abiding people, but that does not excuse coming here illegally.
Put yourself in the shoes of Americans, how would you feel if your ancestors worked hard through forming labor unions, and other processes to raise their standard of living, and then people came to your country illegally and started to take your jobs, by working for lower wages?
Most Americans are not racists, and most welcome immigrants, the ones that come here through due process. We are a nation of immigrants, most of us share that common thread. But, we are also a nation that has laws, and we would ask that immigrants abide by those laws, and come here through the legal channels.
" Subverting our legal system to get ahead in life, and get a better education for your children is criminal behavior."
You think people want to leave their families behind and go to a foreign land with different customs and a different language, where they'll be deported if they're caught?
Some of them are the farmers who can't sell their grain because NAFTA forces their country to import cheaper, U.S. government subsidized corn. Some of them are trying to escape U.S. trained and funded death squads or harm at the hands of right-wing governments supported by the U.S. Some of them are just trying to get out of bad economic situations brought about by U.S. and multinational corporations extracting the wealth and resources from their countries for decades.
We should be apologizing to these people and giving them reparations, not punishing them with our laws while giving brutal dictatorships a pass. The real criminals are the ones in charge, not the ones working in the fields and factories.
Can't this issue be resolved humanely with empathy for these families and their beautiful children? Why do those in power immediately resort to the most draconian of measures which punishes the least among us? There surely is a better way.
You say, "Subverting our legal system to get ahead in life, and get a better education for your children is criminal behavior", but to the heart, this feels more like human instinct than criminal behavior. There are many, many instances in American history where people have subverted our legal system when it was not functioning in the best interests of human beings. And many have paid with their lives in order to have such laws changed and to set the human spirit free.
You say, "Put yourself in the shoes of Americans...how would you feel if your ancestors worked hard....then people started to take your jobs by working for lower wages?" Can you project this scenario back a few generations please? In our rather recent past, the entire west/southwest portion of "our" nation belonged to these people and native peoples whom "we" renamed out of our own ignorance, "Indians". While today's generation of "legal" Americans over and over proudly proclaims that we are a nation of immigrants, we smugly add the caveat that we came here legally. But by whose laws? Certainly not the laws of the people we displaced. OUR laws which declared us "legal" were put in place AFTER we arrived and began to covetously remove the indigenous peoples from their lands, forbid them to speak their native tongues, and insist that they adopt our ways or die. Put yourself in their shoes...How would YOU feel if this were to happen to you, Mr. & Mrs. proud American?
What is most ironic is that, while outraged over the return of these so called "illegal" people to the land of their forefathers after we've occupied it for scarcely 300 years, we support the return of the Jewish people to Palestine/Israel who 65 years ago uprooted an ancient people and demanded the return of their "homeland" from the Palestinians who had been its caretakers for thousands of years. Does anyone else see the "karma" in what is happening in the United States?
While understanding and respecting that we are a nation of laws, we are also a nation of unjust laws and unequal enforcement of those laws and this must be remedied before condemning families to be torn apart to fix a created problem. Yes, created....by whom? The true criminals are once again found by "following the money". First, the wealthy ruling elite of Mexico create immigrants by feasting off the fruit of the labor of their people driving them into such destitute proverty that many are willing to risk their lives for the sake of providing better lives for their children and families. Next, the wealthy ruling elite of corporate America lure them to leave their homeland with promises of work and enough income to realize their dream of a better life knowing the will work for very little, thus enslaving them, and so they come.
Ask yourself, who has caused this situation to exist? Who should be paying the price for the follies of the past? Who should be held accountable for creating untenable living conditions of the present? Who truly belongs in prison? Does our nation believe its own proclamations about the importance of "family values", or is this only lip service which applies to special families..."legal families"?
It's another classic example of "Problem - Reaction - Solution". The very people who created the problem are getting the reaction that they desired pitting working people against working people, and, once again, the solution is ready...punish them, not US!! Reminiscent of the Wizard of Oz frantically yelling out, "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain", when he was finally exposed for what he was...a manipulator and hypocrite.
We are better than the wizard and should not allow him and his ilk (the elitists) to ruin the lives of people who are just like us. Strip the elite of their power and show mercy to the least among us and great shall be our reward.
Everyone's on the bandwagon again. Yes, there are unacceptable injustices at work, such as profiling, slavewages, the destruction of labour markets in the native countries; however, these are illegal aliens, yes? people who don't have the required paperwork? It takes years to get the Green Card - perhaps that process should be made easier, simpler, faster. Do your scruples or principles hold up in other cases? How do you feel about Musa, Ahmed, or Farshid sneaking in without papers, either dragging his family along or creating one in the US? How sympathetic are you to Chinese or Indonesians flooding into the east coast without papers? I'm not defending the racism that inspires the inhumane / uncivil treatment of any immigrant, legal or illegal; on the contrary, I find disgusting the way the various states and the US in general treat people, legal or il-. But is it unreasonable to expect potential immigrants to do their homework?
So,redballoon, you think people spend years navigating the maze of paperwork and expense so they can pick lettuce for your table, and grapes for your sparkling wine? Alas.
Philip - No. I thought I made that obvious. What an absurdly simplistic conclusion.
If the illegals were college-educated Europeans, there wouldn't be such laws and we wouldn't be having this conversation. What about all the resources the West sucks up so most of the rest of the world lives in poverty? What about the Statue of Liberty, all those huddled masses yearning to be free that we once welcomed or once were?
"Nobody separates the parents from the kids." - How do you mean it, Chameleon? Do they arrest the kids with the parents?
"The parents are free to take the kids with them when they leave." - The issue here isn't that the parents can't, or don't want to, eventually take the kids with them, after they get deported. The main issue is what happens to the kids right after the parents get arrested.
Where does it say in this article that the parents "try and leave the kids back?" Try as I might, I can't find that part.
Nothing better could happen to the South than to legalize all the "illegals" so they, too, can vote. They'd get rid of the Texas Board of Education, the Republican power structure in Arizona, they'd probably take down the Confederate flags that are still blowing in the wind. Oh the things that would happen! (as Dr. Seuss might have said.)
The anti-immigration movement is fueled by a private prison industry that is heavily lobbying the Republican Party. They are not about to "end illegal immigration" because that would put them out of business.
As for this town in Alabama, they were shocked, just shocked, to find out that the census had missed so many people that, in a town with an almost all-white population, 65% of the children were persons of color!
Who are these people? They work on the farms. That is my understanding. So, does anyone want a job working on a farm in Alabama?
Let me also ask: does anyone here - even proud of jogging 1-5 miles per day - which is pretty damn good - want to run in the Boston Marathon next week?
They are WAREHOUSING tons of people in prisons right now. It makes Storming the Bastille look like a joke. They are making a lot of money per head.
This is why legal immigrants have sponsors and a support system.