Serrano Releases Report on Removals of Parents of US Citizen Children
The IG found that because of Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) data collection procedures there was not accurate information on the number of children who were affected, the length of time that parents had been in the country or what happened to the children. The IG recommended that ICE look into the feasibility of collecting data on whether deportees have citizen children and how old those children are when the parents are removed from the country.
"This report is an important first step," said Serrano after the report was released. "It is shocking that we are deporting this many parents without even keeping track of the impact it is having on their children. It is unacceptable that we are continuing to tear apart American families. Hopefully, now that we have this report, people will start to recognize the scope of this problem and the need to start protecting these children."
Serrano has introduced HR 182, the Child Citizen Protection Act, which would give immigration judges the ability to consider the presence of a US citizen child when they are ruling on the removal of an immigrant parent.