Hurricane Factsheet: Parental Rights
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2009
Human Rights Abuses Against Immigrant Parents
Produced by NNIRR's HURRICANE initiative
An estimated 3.1 million U.S.-citizen children have at least one parent who is undocumented. Many more have at least one parent who is a permanent legal resident who can be subject to deportation for minor infractions or upon filing for a change of immigration status. Every year, thousands of children are separated from a parent who has been detained and/or deported by the Department of Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
HURRICANE, an initiative of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights has been tracking rights violations and abuses perpetrated against immigrant members of our communities, in particular, the impacts on women, children, and families such as the practice of stripping away immigrants' parental rights and/or permanent separation from their children on the basis of their immigration status, often in the quartet of courts, immigration, local law enforcement and foster care agencies. Alarming patterns include the increased use of racial profiling to stop, follow and harass immigrant mothers, the use of immigration status as an indicator of whether or not a parent is unfit to care for their children, the abuse against parents who cannot speak English and the active complicity of foster care agencies and social workers in the separation of families. Listed below are thirteen brief stories of abuse against immigrant families, as an established pattern, on a national scale.
Culpeper County, Virginia
On June 30, 2009, the Court of Appeals of Virginia affirmed the ruling of the Circuit Court of Culpeper County to terminate the parental rights of Guatemalan immigrant parents Victor Perez-Velasquez and Miriam Diaz to their children and place the U.S born children under foster care, stating that it was in the best interests of the children to not remain in the custody of undocumented and deportable parents. On June 20, 2006, the Culpeper County Department of Social Services removed the children from their home while their mother was away from home for a job interview and subsequently placed them in foster care. The father was incarcerated at the time and deported a year later. The father’s appeal of the ruling that terminated the parental rights of both parents on April 2nd, 2008 was on the basis that he had not been informed of the foster care proceedings, was not provided any services and was not given adequate translation. In terminating the parental rights of the deported father, the court did not even consider the possibility of re-unification in the parents’ home country as an option. www.courts.state.va.us/opinions/opncavwp/0360094.pdf
On June 26, 2009, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that the state had acted improperly in terminating a Guatemalan mother’s parental rights to her two U.S born children after she was deported in May 2005 without an opportunity to appeal in state court for custody of her children. The Supreme Court reversed a previous decision against Maria Luis and said it was not enough for the state to argue that the children would have fewer opportunities in Guatemala and that there was no sufficient proof that Maria Luis was an unfit mother. Nebraska officials will be working to reunite the family in Guatemala.
As of June 26, 2009, Fatoumata, an immigrant mother of six, is at risk of being deported to Senegal if her application for asylum is denied. If it is denied, she risks either separating from her children, who have U.S citizenship and will likely be sent to foster care, or moving them back to Senegal where her family is demanding her daughters undergo traditional genital cutting, also known as female genital mutilation, which is considered one of the worst violations listed in the U.N Convention on the Rights of the Child.
June 12, 2009- The Rhode Island Supreme Court terminated the parental rights of immigrant mother Rosalia Lopez-Navor to her son and daughter. The judge in the case ruled that Lopez-Navor lost her right to custody of her children not because she inflicted any abuse but because she failed to protect her son from his abusive father, even though she had been psychologically abused as well. Lopez-Navor was deported to Mexico in 2005 and her children had been in foster care since then, and will now be going through the adoption process.
On June 4, 2009, the Arkansas Department of Human Services snatched the 3 young children, aged 4, 3, and 4 months from their parents Suzanne and Calvin McHenry, falsely accused Suzanne of battery and child abuse, detained her in federal immigration prison and is in the process of deporting her to the United Kingdom for living out of status. The children are now in foster care, as the father fights in court to take them back and apply to bring back his wife.
February 12, 2009, Children's Network of Southwest Florida, a private Naples foster care agency under contract with the Department of Children and Families, snatched the one and two year old children of immigrant mother Karen Arriaga, then proceeded to report the mother and grandparents to ICE agents and the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, which detained them and charged Karen Arriaga with one count of child neglect. Karen, a young single mom, gave birth to a premature baby boy with undeveloped lungs. She didn't have the money to purchase the expensive medical equipment and no vehicle to drive to scheduled doctor's appointments so her baby could receive the proper care. During a regular visit to see their grandchildren, Karen's parents were questioned by social workers about their immigration status, and then turned over to ICE for detention. The grandfather was released to care for young children, but the grandmother remained in ICE custody at Collier County Jail. In August 2009, after serving 187 days in jail, a judge put Karen on probation for one year, during which she would still be subject to possible deportation by ICE. During her probation, her children resided with an aunt.
On January 12, 2009, a Palestinian father, Mohammad Mohammad was arrested along with his wife Sana AlSayed and eighteen year old son Imad Mohammad at their home in Hoover, Alabama as the couple’s five younger US born children watched. They were detained on warrants for failure to depart the country after being denied asylum in July 2001.The family has been in the United States since 1993, but as Palestinians, do not have an official nationality. The oldest son, Imad, a student at community college, came to the United States as a two year old child. They are currently fighting their deportation and separation from their five youngest US born children.
Indonesian immigrants Harry and Yana Pangemanan are facing the threat of deportation and separation from their two young daughters. On January 12, 2009, a male and a female ICE agent entered the couple's home in Avenel, NJ and took Harry into custody at a detention center in Elizabeth, leaving the mother with the children. Harry Pangemanan was later transferred to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington. The Pangemanans fled religious persecution in their home country, Indonesia, in 1993. If sent back, they would have to make the decision between separating from their children and having them placed in foster care in the United States, or endangering their children's lives as well as their own, in Indonesia, where they are sure to face continued religious persecution and hardship.
July 2008-Legal Permanent Resident Tatyana Mitrohina, and mother of a 2 year old child, is currently in federal immigration detention and was in the process of being deported to Russia, a country she left as a teenager. Mitrohina was sent to the Yuba County Jail after being charged with hitting her son, and had been previously diagnosed with post-partum depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Her child is currently in foster care.
After a 2007 raid at George’s Processing Plant in Butterfield, Missouri that resulted in the detention of 136 immigrants, the Circuit Court in Jasper County, in April 2009, terminated the parental rights of one of the former workers, a Guatemalan mother, Encarnación Bail Romero, to her U.S born child, a year and a half after she went to jail, on the grounds of abandoning her child, and on her deportable status. Her two year old son, Carlos, was adopted by a local couple, who were awarded custody by the same judge after a private petition the year before. The mother had not been given legal representation or informed about the adoption proceedings in her native Spanish, before it was too late. Ms. Bail Romero is still in detention.
New York City, New York
Roxroy Salmon, a Brooklyn father of five and community leader is fighting deportation back to Jamaica from two decades-old convictions for which he served no jail time. Salmon has four US born children in the United States and is fighting against separation. His lawyer is seeking "deferred action" or temporary relief from deportation. His struggle to remain with his family has been embraced by community activists and interfaith leaders, along with prominent immigrants rights groups like Families for Freedom and the NY New Sanctuary Coalition.
For more information on this case, contact Families for Freedom at 646-290-5551
Dearborn, Michigan
In an act of revenge reporting to ICE agents, an immigrant mother, J, was arrested and detained by ICE agents who entered her home with false claims of a warrant, according to a witness R, in August 2008, after her husband, W, a US citizen, had physically abused her and injured her.While W was sent to jail for a few days and then released on probation, J received no legal representation and was transferred out of state before deportation to Guatemala, and could not be located by her lawyer who was trying to secure a U-visa for her. J has a 4 year old son JE who was left alone with W, with no plan made by federal agencies to put JE in a safer place. Living with W poses a threat for JE and problems for his mental development. JE was deprived of health insurance, JE's father has a history of drug abuse, including cocaine use, and JE's grandfather has a history of sexual abuse. Reports on JE's development include an increase in aggressive behavior and an incident involving the child's attempt to cut off the tail of a puppy. Child Protective Services has not intervened in any capacity to remove the child from this unhealthy situation. The mother's sister, JE's aunt, could not come forward for fear that the father W would report her to ICE agents as well.
For more information on this case, contact the Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights at 734-355-2707, or NNIRR's 100 Stories Project.
Howell, Michigan
In September 2008, Tomasita was racially profiled and arrested for charges of driving a car with expired license plates, not having her child in a car seat and lying about her documentation. She was detained at Livingston County Jail, where officials contacted ICE agents to pick her up and took her child into foster care. After her sister attempted to secure foster care for the child, Child Protective Services took away Tomasita's other two daughters, declaring the sister unfit to care for the children due to her immigration status. Tomasita was deported to Mexico, the two daughters are now in the custody of the biological father, but the last born son still remains in foster care.
For more information on this case, contact the Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights at 734-355-2707, or NNIRR's 100 Stories Project.
Athens, Alabama
In September 2003, an Athens family physician, Dr. Ernie Hendrix, took up the fight to return a US born baby, Javier, to its mother, Marta Alonzo, from the custody of the Department of Human Resources, to prevent the adoption of the baby over the objections of his mother. After a check-in at an emergency room, two unidentified women took Javier from the hospital and placed him in state custody without notification to the mother, with the excuse that the child had been taken away because the mother was deemed to be an incompetent parent. No allegations of abuse or neglect have been leveled against the mother, but the child was nonetheless put up for adoption. Because of her young age, the mother was also placed in foster care. Marta has expressed the desire to keep her child with her and to continue work in Athens, or go back with her child to Guatemala. Marta speaks a Mayan language and very little English and Spanish. Dr. Hendrix filed a complaint with the Department of Justice for the lack of adequate provision of translation services for Marta as well.
Memphis, Tennessee
In October 2004, a complaint was filed with the U.S Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division against the judicial conduct of a Judge Robert Childers, who ruled on May 12, 2004, in the Circuit Court of Shelby County in Tennessee, to terminate the parental rights of a couple to their five year old child and declared the parents Shaoqiang and Casey Luo, unfit to take care of the child, Anna Mae He, and to win back their daughter from her foster family, the Bakers.