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Jim Gonzalez

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U.S. Removal of Children from Undocumented Parents Violates Human Rights

Posted: 04/29/2012 4:38 pm

Our national research organization, the Latino Policy Coalition (LPC) has submitted an official complaint for the Universal Periodic Review by the United Nations Human Rights Council regarding the human rights record of the United States of America.

The 10 page complaint charges the U.S. with routinely and consistently violating human rights by officially causing the de facto misappropriation and removal of at least an estimated 46,000 children from their immigrant parents. These practices condoned by the United States government violate six Articles of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and nine Articles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

"During 2011, 46,000 mothers and fathers of at least one U.S. citizen child were part of massive ICE deportations; and many of these children (unable to be claimed by their parents held in ICE detention centers) were forced into county foster care systems-as abandoned and neglected children.

Subsequently, some infants have been put up for adoption, apparently making the practice of shattering undocumented working families a standard and acceptable legal procedure in the United States.

At least 5,100 children in this circumstance are now MISSING spread throughout the country in a gulag of federal, state, and county conflicting laws and procedures-which keep their rightful parents from finding them,and regaining custody either in the U.S. or in Latin America.

Human rights advocates need to move on the national and international level to reunite these families; and end these blunt violations of perhaps the oldest and most fundamental of human rights: a parent's right to raise and care for their own child.

The UN complaint asks the United Nations to press for immediate steps and remedies from the United States to begin the process of reunification of affected families to include:

The issuance of a United Nations Writ of Habeas Corpus requiring that the President of the United States produce a complete and detailed list of children who have been removed from the custody and care of their parents as a result of detention or deportation proceedings initiated against immigrant parents.

Requesting U.S. President Barack Obama- to issue a Presidential Executive Order to identify the affected children for reunification with their parents; and to end the practice of governmental jurisdictions within the USA engaging in the arbitrary removal of children from the custody and care of their immigrant parents.

To help, visit: www.latinopolicycoalition.org

(The Latino Policy Coalition is a national non-partisan non-profit consortium of the country's leading Latino research organizations and scholars. LPC is chaired by former San Francisco Supervisor Jim Gonzalez, the author of the nation's first City of Sanctuary Ordinance to protect the rights of undocumented immigrants).

 

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05:36 AM on 05/10/2012
Heres an idea...stop coming here illegally and having kids. Go back with your kids. Illegal means just that you have no rights here unless you come here legally and eventually become a citizen. Why are you not fighting for your human rights in your own country? Get it through your heads that we can't take care of you anymore tax payers are broke and can't afford milk. What kind of person has a child they can't feed in a country their in illegally and what parent doesn't go back with their child. I hate to see families seperated but I'm also tired of paying for everyone else. Stop popping kids out to get a green card!
05:28 PM on 05/17/2012
Not going back with their children? Obviously these parents have a desire to take their children back with them. However, the government does not allow American children to go back with their parents to their respective countries. Shouldn't parents have a final say in regards to their children's future.
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Melissa Irlandez
05:06 PM on 05/06/2012
Question.. Can the parents take their kids back with them? Just seems rather strange to me. Why be responsible for these children if we don't have to. The article does not mention if parents are asked this. If a parent is deported and the child a minor US citizen, strip the kid of their rights and keep the family together. Simple really.
04:34 PM on 05/22/2012
It has been nearly impossible for the parents to take their children with them. Once the parents have been held in ICE, they have no contact with their families. The children are then taken away without their consent and placed under foster care. The parents are stripped of this human right and this is the whole point of this complaint. Also, would you want your kids to be stripped of their rights? I doubt it.
09:41 AM on 05/02/2012
http://unpfip.blogspot.com/2012/04/request-for-intervention-to-un-special.html

Friday, April 27, 2012
Request for Intervention to the UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples, Professor James Anaya

Dear Special Rapporteur Anaya,

In furtherance of the objectives of the Conference and Consultation on the Significance of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which you hosted today at the University of Arizona School of Law, please consider submitting a formal inquiry to the US Justice Department regarding the following issue, namely:

The continued persecution and discrimination against Indigenous Peoples in Maricopa County, Arizona including exclusion from the procedures of investigation and remedy involving racial profiling currently under way in Maricopa County by the US Justice Department.
******
Extract: Memorandum to the US Justice Department

Therefore, in light of the fact that the issues of racial profiling and discriminatory policing that have begun to be addressed in the US Justice Department Letter of Findings regarding the Maricopa County Sheriff's office and the Melendrez vs. Arpaio decision by the US Court of Justice HAVE NOT mentioned the systematic practices of racial profiling against Indigenous Peoples in particular as fundamental to the overall violations of Civil Rights, Human Rights, and Indigenous Rights within the scope of law enforcement operations in Maricopa County:

Tupac Enrique Acosta. Yaotachcauh
Tlahtokan Nahuacalli
TONATIERRA
03:44 AM on 05/01/2012
simple solution, take the kids back with the parents when they are deported. If the illegals have commited other crimes than the illegal entry then the gov has every right to decide what to do for the future welfare of the kids, especially if they are American citizens. Of course the obviious answers are 1. the illegals have no right to complain as the broke our laws ans 2. why should we continue to pamper and coddle these criminals.
04:36 PM on 05/22/2012
Humans are not "illegal"
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SF TKF
Cthulhu thinks you'd make a nice sandwich.
11:32 AM on 04/30/2012
Can you imagine the howls if these children were being detained and then being deported with their parents? If you’re breaking the law, you’d better have a plan for what to do when you get caught. If parents fail to take basic precautions to ensure their children will be cared for in the event that they are arrested for being here illegally, I fail to see how that is anyone else’s fault.
10:01 AM on 04/30/2012
I'm tired of people thinking undocumented aliens are a drain on society. We only have social security today because of "illegal aliens". They pay into the system by paying taxes on sales, on income (depending on the state), car registration, etc.

They cannot get social security benefits without being a citizen.

Our whole social security system is propped up by them and you ignorant people would like to see these undocumented workers removed? That works for me just as long as each person that wants them removed cannot claim social security either.

As for the taking of the children from their parents, this seems like a violation of the 8th amendment as it is certainly cruel or unusual punishment to remove a child from their parents for simply being an undocumented alien.
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markspence
11:11 PM on 04/30/2012
The children are taken from the parents because the parents have chosen - foolishly - to stay in detention for months and even years. There is nothing that prevents these parents from returning to their home countries and sending for their children.
04:40 PM on 05/22/2012
There have been cases where the parents decide to go back to their country and ask to take back their kids, yet the U.S. government is denying them of this right and instead place their children in foster care or give up their kids for adoption. The parents are capable and willing to take care of their children in their home country and they are still being denied to have their children back. Sometimes, the children are lost in this whole system and they are now reported "missing" as a result. This is part of the reason for this complaint.
11:38 PM on 04/30/2012
Send the grubby little urchins home with their parents.
09:54 AM on 04/30/2012
Do I have this correct?
The parents illegally entered this country or intentionally overstayed a visa.
The parents are now here illegally.
They either brought children with them or had children while living here.
They, the parents, initiated the situation and caused the problems that now impact the children.

But somehow, others (read US Taxpayers) are responsible for the care and welfare of these children?
The taxpayer that did nothing to start or foster the problem/situation is now the solution?
We are responsible for these families?

Really, we are in the wrong and we are responsible?
Not likely!
04:41 PM on 05/22/2012
No, you do not have this correct. Get educated and stop being the ignorant part of America.
08:34 AM on 04/30/2012
When you are not a citizen you should have no rights what so ever in this country. Illegals dont get to complain and moan how the law in unfair. Anything action the US takes is because they broke the law.
03:41 AM on 05/01/2012
so in your eyes laws>humanity.

you sound like a GREAT human being!
07:04 PM on 05/01/2012
Stop hiding behind supposed compassion.......I understand very well the level of compassion latin american people put each other thru.
05:44 AM on 05/10/2012
No it sounds like we can't afford bread it sounds like americans who are unemployed are still being denied jobs iy sounds like they need to go home and take up their huiman rights issues with their own country.
12:32 AM on 04/30/2012
Deliberate Violation of Internationally Recognized Borders by Undocumented Foreign Nationals Violates U.S. Sovereignty
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
ugly american
"I drank what?"- Last words of Socrates
11:45 PM on 04/29/2012
In the United States of America, millions of parents of dependent US citizen children are detained for long periods, sometimes even for life, by the US and various state governments. The parents themselves are US citizens who have broken the laws of our nation. They cannot take their families with them to prison and occasionally they are denied any visitation. This is what we do to our own citizens, whether they are parents or not.
Millions of foreigners entered the US illegally, set up shop, work in violation of the laws and have children here, citizens of their parent's nations and accidentally, Americans. The is deportation to their home country. When they go, they are free to take their families with them. Only through their choice do they abandon them. Does the US owe amnesty and citizenship to them for breaking our laws and managing to produce offspring here? No.
If we imprison our own citizens who are parents, why should we let foreigners slated for deportation stay because they are parents? Particularly if all it takes is a visit to a consulate for the whole family to go?
There is no "human right" specified by the UN or any treaty that allows people to cross into the US without inspection. In most nations of the Western Hemisphere there is no such right. For it to exist would require reciprocity.
You won't see that coming from any Latin nation.
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04:52 PM on 04/29/2012
A quick look at Wikipedia suggests that there is no such thing as a "United Nations Writ of Habeas Corpus."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habeas_corpus

Makes one suspicious about the rest of his assertions.
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inthedesert
Those who never question will fall for anything.
11:09 AM on 04/30/2012
Good for you Robert. It's best to check facts on any story presented on this page.
04:14 PM on 04/29/2012
Even if the US is determined to deny "illegal" aliens any rights in their country, by our laws their children born here are US citizens and have the same rights we do. I think part of their rights is to preserve their connections with their parents, even if their parents are incarcerated or deported. The parents should be able to decide if they want their children to accompany them if they are deported, and if they decide the children should remain here, the children should be in foster care and able to communicate with their parents abroad until their parents relinquish their parental rights in writing. Infants who aren't yet weaned should be able to stay with their mother - we have the technology to keep people under house arrest with GPS ankle bracelets if the infants aren't allowed in the place where the rest of the "illegals" are being detained.
05:47 AM on 05/10/2012
No they aren't the laws were changed years ago because of illegals coming here and having babies and using them to remain while collecting benefits. They have no rights period I do not feel sorry for anyone who has a kid they cannot care for or anyone who takes the food out of my kids mouth. Try going to Mexico or Venezuela see how fast your welcomed.
12:31 AM on 05/11/2012
Any child born in the United States is a US citizen and has the same rights as your children do. If you don't like it your recourse is to try to change the law, but that is still the law. The alien parents of a child born here do not gain US citizenship just because the child is born. If they are here legally on a visa or work permit they must return home when it expires, and they usually take their children with them, but the child remains a US citizen, although some countrys' laws also consider the child to be a dual citizen of its parents' homeland and the country of its birthplace. US law requires that at age 18 dual citizens must choose which nation they wish to be a citizen of, and if a child born here doesn't tell the US before he or she turns 18 that she or he is choosing to renounce their citizenship in their parent's homeland in order to be a US citizen, then they will lose their US citizenship. A US citizen child living outside this country can't be denied entry to the US though its alien parents can be denied entry. This is true whether or not the parents came here illegally when the child was born here. And I have been to Mexico and was treated well there, even got some much needed dental work done, and the dentists worked overtime to help me out.
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BlairCase
02:11 PM on 04/29/2012
What could the author possibly mean by "officially causing the de facto misappropriation"of children? He probably means foreign nationals have to leave the country once their visas expires. It's doubtful that the UN would agree this is a human rights violation since all visas expire in all countries that issue visas. Children of parents in detention because they entered the country illegally make up a tiny fraction of children placed in foster homes in the United States. Unless the parents are ruled to be unfit parents, these children are reunited with their parents as soon as deportation hearings are completed. Tens of thousands of U.S. citizens incarcerated for crimes other than illegal entry into the country also have children.
07:22 PM on 04/29/2012
First, I agree and what you say makes sense based on the current law.

On the other hand, we should change the law so that those born here of illegals should be illegal
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Snake1994
Snakebite!
01:57 PM on 04/29/2012
And what do you suggest Jim, That we give all the illegal parents amnesty because their children were born in the US? Is that what they do in other countries?
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nasknit
Freedom isn't free.
03:15 PM on 04/29/2012
Pretty sure that's exactly what he wants. And, NO that is not what other countries do.
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