Speaking for the Children Advocate: Report One Step to Immigration Reform

Harold Reutter
The Grand Island Independent

Officials speaking Wednesday morning agreed with a new report's assessment that Americans must consider the underlying policies and laws that result in tearing undocumented workers away from their dependent children.

Darcy Tromanhauser of Nebraska Appleseed was one of those speaking at a press conference at the Grand Island Public Schools Administration Building about the impact of last December's Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on Grand Island's children.

Tromanhauser said all the recommendations in an Urban Institute report commissioned by the National Council of La Raza should be considered interim steps while the nation's official policy is enforcement-only when it comes to illegal immigrants.

The report, "Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on America's Children," was released Wednesday morning in Washington, D.C., prompting the local event by Nebraska Appleseed, a nonprofit, nonpartisan law project that focuses on the working poor and immigrants.

After the press conference, Tromanhauser said America and its citizens have traditionally cared for their children "no matter what we think about their parents."

But she said people also must take a second look at the parents, who are working without authorization in this country. Their actions mean they are illegal immigrants.

Tromanhauser said being an illegal immigrant is a civil offense, not a criminal one. Yet some people want to paint that civil offense as the moral equivalent of crimes such as murder or violent assault.

Illegal immigrants' crime is that they are working in this country without authorization "at jobs that need to be done," Tromanhauser said.

Some people refer to children who are legal U.S. citizens because they were born in this country as "anchor babies" if their parents are illegal immigrants, she said.

"I think they do that to frame the debate," Tromanhauser said. She said the term "anchor babies" is intended to lessen concern about children whose families are disrupted by ICE enforcement actions.

America has often changed laws that were wrong, she said. Ending slavery and giving women the right to vote are two examples.

Nebraska Appleseed favors comprehensive immigration reform. Many people have said that should include a system of civil fines, payment of any back taxes due and other sanctions combined with a "path to citizenship" for people who are illegal immigrants, Tromanhauser said.

Many people view anything short of deportation with no possibility of re-entry to America or the possibility of re-entry only after a 10-year waiting period as amnesty, Tromanhauser said.

"Those are the people who think the (immigration) law is right," she said.

During the actual press conference, though, the term "comprehensive reform" never came up. Speakers talked about the impact on children.

Kerri Nazarenus, director of the Grand Island public schools' English language acquisition program, talked about how students fared on the day of the raid, as well as in the following days.

"Many of our students were emotionally distraught as they knew that they were likely to go home to find one or both of their parents were likely to be detained and were uncertain as to what the future might hold for their families," Nazarenus said.

"Others were confused because they were too young to understand the complexity of legal entry into the country and didn't know their parents were undocumented," Nazarenus said.

"While not all of our students had a parent involved in the raid, many had older siblings, relatives and close friends that were," she said. "Most everyone knew someone that had been directly impacted by the raids in some manner whether it was a family member, friend or neighbor."

Odalys Perez, director of the Grand Island Multicultural Coalition, said she was asked to set up a support group for women following the raid. Members included women who were detained, then released because they had young children who needed care; an American citizen whose husband was detained; and others.

Perez said the women suffered from depression and even from post-traumatic stress disorder. Young people from the Community Youth Council baby-sat children during the weekly support sessions at the YWCA.

Perez said her counseling sessions had to end in July because she has not yet received her full counseling degree through her graduate studies.

Some women who were detained have court dates in 2008, Perez said. Their original infraction was working without documentation as a legal citizen or permanent resident.

To obey the law, women detained in December 2006 should refrain from any further work in the United States until their 2008 court date, Perez said. That put mothers and their children in a tough financial situation.

"Lawyers were telling the women not to leave the country because, 'How are you going to get re-entry for your court date?'" Perez said.

Alma Rawlings, a private interpreter, said some people arrested on the day of the raid have been separated from their children for seven months. They could not be released to provide compassionate care for their children because another parent was still at home.

After the press conference, Tromanhauser said the Urban Institute/La Raza report has made many recommendations to minimize the impact of work-site raids on immigrant children.

But even if those recommendations are adopted, America should consider providing a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants doing work that needs to be done in this country, Tromanhauser said.

When it comes to children, there is no substitute for parents, she said.