Dividing families

By MONICA RHOR

The Associated Press

HOUSTON -- They are the hidden side of the government's stepped-up efforts to track down and deport illegal immigrants: Toddlers stranded at day care centers or handed over to ill-equipped relatives. Siblings suddenly left in charge of younger brothers and sisters.

When illegal-immigrant parents are swept up in raids on homes and workplaces, the children are sometimes left behind -- a complication that underscores the difficulty in enforcing immigration laws against people who have put down roots and begun raising families in the United States.

Three million American-born children have at least one parent who is an illegal immigrant; one in 10 American families has mixed immigration status, meaning at least one member is an immigrant here illegally, according to the Pew Center for Hispanic Research and the office of U.S. Rep. Jose Serrano. Children born in the United States are automatically American citizens and are not subject to deportation.

Las week in Massachusetts, most of the 361 workers picked up in a raid at a New Bedford leather-goods factory that made vests and backpacks for the U.S. military were women with children, setting off what Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick called a "humanitarian crisis."

Community activists scrambled to locate the children, offer tips to fathers unfamiliar with warming formula and changing diapers, and gather donations of baby supplies. One baby who was breast-feeding had to be hospitalized for dehydration because her mother remained in detention, authorities said.

Under pressure to crack down on illegal immigrants, U.S. Immigration and Customs Encorcement has intensified enforcement activity around the country. But the raids have led to a growing outcry from immigrant advocates and activists who say thousands of families are being split apart. Until 1996, immigration judges were allowed to consider family hardship when deciding whether to deport legal residents charged with certain crimes. That changed under an immigration reform law.

Luissana Santibanez, a 23-year-old student at the University of Texas in Austin, has been taking care of three younger siblings while their mother, Sergia, held in a Houston immigration detention center for nearly 18 months, fights deportation.

Sergia Santibanez, a legal resident for more than 15 years, was ordered deported after she served four months behind bars for transporting illegal immigrants. She said the illegal immigrants were three friends who asked for a ride, and that she didn't know their immigration status and never asked.

"The hardest thing is that my children are suffering and I can't do anything about it," Sergia, who worked in a factory and cleaned houses before her arrest, said by telephone from the detention center. "This will destroy their future."

Luissana has been supporting her two brothers and one sister on food stamps and student grants. All are U.S. citizens.

"As a country, we should not put our youngest citizens at risk of hunger, homelessness and living without parents," said Ali Noorani, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. "Our immigration system has to be squared with values."