{"id":1189,"date":"2015-06-23T00:01:35","date_gmt":"2015-06-23T00:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nilc.org\/?p=1189"},"modified":"2016-07-18T12:24:03","modified_gmt":"2016-07-18T19:24:03","slug":"political-stalemates-harm-u-s-citizen-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nilc.org\/2015\/06\/23\/political-stalemates-harm-u-s-citizen-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Political Stalemates Harm U.S. Citizen Children"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
\n<\/strong>June 23, 2015<\/p>\n

CONTACTS
\n<\/strong>Gebe Martinez, gebe.gmnetworking@gmail.com<\/a>, 703.731.9505
\nKaty Green, katy@newpartners.com<\/a>, 202.331.2389<\/p>\n

U.S. Citizen Children of Immigrants Are Disregarded and Are the Most Harmed by Political Stalemates in Congress and the Courts<\/h1>\n

Fears of deportation seen in classrooms and research, children\u2019s advocates say<\/em><\/h2>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Millions of U.S. citizen children of immigrant parents are paying the heaviest price for the court-ordered delays of the immigration relief programs announced last November by President Obama, children\u2019s advocates and scholars said today.<\/p>\n

The court case, driven by conservative, anti-immigrant politicians in 26 states, has threatened the academic and social development of these young citizens, the advocates said during a telephonic press conference. Anxieties and lower cognitive skills caused by the threat of deportation, family separation, economic insecurity, and other issues could be resolved if the temporary relief programs were allowed to proceed, according to recent studies (see this fact sheet<\/a> from America\u2019s Voice Education Fund for more information).<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile much attention has been paid to the politics surrounding the prolonged legal battle challenging the president\u2019s executive actions, much less attention has been given to how the lawsuit is impacting the lives of millions of U.S. citizen children,\u201d said Marielena Hincapi\u00e9, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center.<\/p>\n

Approximately 5.5 million U.S. citizen children live with a parent who would be eligible for protection from deportation and work authorization under the president\u2019s Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA). The administration also proposed expanding the successful 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Both programs have been blocked by the courts pending the outcome of the lawsuit; a hearing is scheduled for July 10 before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe research shows that lifting the fear of deportation and enabling parents to better provide for their children is just common sense policy. It\u2019s simple: when parents are able to focus on being parents, children do better. And when children do better, we as a country do better,\u201d said Bruce Lesley, First Focus president.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor too long, our immigration policies have overlooked the needs of children, and they have paid a heavy price for it. The lawsuit blocking the president\u2019s executive actions is not only misguided and irresponsible, but it\u2019s also playing politics with the lives of millions of children and families who are now left waiting in limbo,\u201d Lesley said.<\/p>\n

Joanna Dreby, of the University of Albany, State University of New York, who has studied the impact of current immigration policies on families, described to reporters the economic instability and the stigma caused by children\u2019s worries that a parent will suddenly be arrested and deported.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeported fathers in the families I met could not send money to provide from their children even after a deportation as they struggled to find work in their home countries. This leaves children in extremely precarious situations \u2014 in single parent households facing severe and sudden poverty,\u201d Dreby said. \u201cChildren in the first, second, and third grade also told me that immigrants were illegals and not allowed to be here. They hid their immigrant background from their friends, not wanting anyone to know that their parents were born elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teachers\u2019 frustration with external factors that impact students\u2019 ability to learn \u201cturns to anger, rage, when we start talking about immigration,\u201d said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeachers throughout the country understand, and have seen what happens to children who are so fearful because they are worried that a parent will not be home when they arrive home.\u201d The harm to children can be repaired immediately by allowing the executive actions to go forward in the absence of comprehensive immigration reform, Weingarten added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lawsuit will be a landmark case because of what it will say about how our nation treats citizen children,\u201d said Roberto Suro of the Annnenberg school for Communications and Journalism and the director of the Tom\u00e1s Rivera Policy Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe meaning of this case has to be understood as going beyond the technicalities. It has to be understood as involving the fates of U.S. citizen children. The stakes are very high because these children have been placed in a perverse position because of policy failure,\u201d Suro said.<\/p>\n

# # #<\/p>\n

An audio recording<\/strong> of the telephonic press conference is available at
\nhttps:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/s\/4weq9xi7lda1vvf\/CHILDREN 062315.mp3<\/a>.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner el_class=”” width=”1\/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar-1″][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\n

 <\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row el_class=”holder” css=”.vc_custom_1444345515294{margin-top: -90px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/1″][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner el_class=”” width=”1\/1″][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner el_class=”” width=”3\/4″][vc_column_text] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 23, 2015 CONTACTS Gebe Martinez, gebe.gmnetworking@gmail.com, 703.731.9505 Katy Green, katy@newpartners.com, 202.331.2389 U.S. Citizen Children of Immigrants Are Disregarded and Are the Most Harmed by Political Stalemates in Congress and the Courts Fears of deportation seen in classrooms and research, children\u2019s advocates […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nilc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nilc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nilc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nilc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nilc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1189"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nilc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9816,"href":"https:\/\/www.nilc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189\/revisions\/9816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nilc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nilc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nilc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}