Invisible Children: SouthFlorida.com

Children overlooked in the battle of immigration

Pompano Beach -- Thirteen-year-old Cecia Soza planned on celebrating her Feb. 26 birthday in typical style, by hosting a bunch of friends for a giggly sleepover. But those plans dissolved when her mother was arrested in December by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers one school-day morning, held for a tortuous month in a detention center and then deported back to Nicaragua, a country Cecia has never visited.
Cecia's 9-year-old brother, Ronald, was in the shower getting ready for school when his mom came in the bathroom and told him that she was being arrested and taken away.
"It was scary," he remembered of his last moments with his mother.
That event was the end of their childhood. Instead of her original birthday plan, Cecia blew out candles on a cake in a staged event under bright television camera lights in the offices of American Fraternity, a Sweetwater-based social services organization. American Fraternity Director Nora Sandigo has taken Ronald and Cecia and 600 other U.S. citizen children under her wing. With their parents' permission, Sandigo is suing the federal government on their behalf to sway U.S. law and allow their parents to stay in the United States.
The number of children in Cecia's situation alarms immigration experts. According to a 2007 study for the National Council of La Raza by the nonpartisan Urban Institute, 5 million children in the U.S. have at least one undocumented parent.
The Sozas have never broken any other law besides entering and working in this country without proper permission and documentation. They came here for a better life before Cecia and Ronald were born and eventually applied to stay, but their requests were denied. They appealed their cases, and even with citizen family members, they are vulnerable to deportations. Cecia's father, Roland, a plasterer, remains with his children. Before 1996, having citizen children would have been a way for undocumented parents to be able to stay in this country. Now, the Sozas have few options.
In 2008, ICE, which is a part of the Department of Homeland Security, performed 12,894 deportations in this region and 356,739 nationwide.
ICE officials say undocumented parents are using their citizen children as a shield.
"Anyone who willfully violates our nation's immigration laws knows that there are potential consequences for their actions and at times place their family members, including children, in unfortunate situations," said Nicole Navas, ICE spokeswoman. "The responsibility for any negative effects felt by families of those who violate the law must lie squarely with the violator and not the agency upholding the law. It is unfortunate that parents are putting their children in these difficult situations by breaking the law"
In the 10 years since it was founded, the Miami-based Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center has assisted in 47,000 legal cases. The FIAC leadership is calling on the federal government to stay deportations of Haitians by granting them Temporary Protected Status because of the abysmal state of that island nation. Recently, FIAC championed the case of Vialine Jean Paul, 34, who is married a U.S. citizen with a 7-year-old chronically ill U.S.-born child. Jean Paul was to be deported. The recent report "Severing a Lifeline: The Neglect of Citizen Children in America's Immigration Enforcement Policy" by the Minneapolis-based law firm Dorsey & Whitney is full of similar stories depicting the harm deportations have caused to children.
The 100-member Homestead-based social service organization We Count yearly serves more than 500 day laborers in finding work, stemming wage theft and offering legal referrals.
A poster of the Statue of Liberty in We Count Director Jonathan Fried's tiny office proclaims, "No human is illegal." Friedman recalls the 2008 ICE raids in Homestead, which resulted in the arrest of 77 Guatemalans and Mexicans who were beaten and verbally abused. Other workplace raids have left children to fend for themselves unaware of their parents' whereabouts.
"It's the children who suffer in these situations," he said. "There's a perception in these cases that one can actually come before a judge who will look into the best interest of the child. That doesn't exist. It creates a situation where people are constantly hiding in fear and are in constant stress."
Fried said the government has made an economic investment in immigration enforcement as officers are charged with arrest quotas and so go after people who are not a security threat. Fried asserted prison construction and prison worker salaries fuel the economy.
"The frustration is that there's usually no legal way to change one's status," Fried said. "So these people are caught. We must review this whole system because there are hundreds of thousands here in this position. These families have a right to be united, to be together."
Immigrant advocates like Fried understand Washington's current focus on the economic crisis but hope the Obama administration will take on immigration reform, allowing those who already reside here to find a way to legalize their status.
Since Cecia's mom was deported, the teen has tried to figure out a way to bring her back, for now speaking to her daily by telephone. ICE officials say Cecia is free to go and live with her mom and come back to the United States whenever she wants. Being younger than 21, Cecia has few rights or political clout to help her. She and her brother did try a weeklong hunger strike to bring attention to her plight. The only results were some news coverage and a declining grade for missing school.
Cecia wants Washington decision-makers to get the message to stop the deportations. "They have their mothers with them," Cecia said. "Why can't I have mine?"