The Kids Aren't All Right

By Kari Lydersen, AlterNet. Posted June 12, 2003.

The current administration and other right-wing pundits often trumpet their support for "family values." Yet undocumented immigrant families, often vilified by the administration, are in many ways the epitome of "family values": Men sacrifice everything to come to the U.S. to raise money to send back to their families in other countries; mothers risk their lives to smuggle babies with them across borders or to raise enough money to bring their whole families to reunite in the U.S.

But because of seemingly arbitrary and heartless immigration policy and bureaucratic snafus, many immigrant families end up being torn apart despite their close family ties and their best efforts to cling together in a new land.

When undocumented immigrants have children in the U.S., those children are citizens, even if their parents are still considered illegal after years of working here. So for various reasons undocumented mothers and fathers will often end up deported, leaving children abandoned to the care of sympathetic community members, other relatives or the state. Many times, the parents don't even know they are still here illegally, thinking their applications for asylum or permanent residency were approved or are being duly processed.

For Mercedes Santiago-Felipe, an indigenous Mayan Guatemalan immigrant living in the town of Grand Island, Nebraska, it all started with a slap to her six-year-old son's face. Little did she know that this punishment would rip her apart from her children.

Mercedes arrived in Florida in 1992 as a refugee from the civil war in Guatemala, which claimed millions of lives including her father's. She applied for asylum in the U.S. based on the fact that she feared being killed by the guerrilla forces.

She had two children, Mainor and Estaela, with her husband in Florida. But the father abandoned the family, and in 2000 Mercedes moved with the children and other indigenous Guatemalans to Grand Island, where there were jobs available at a slaughterhouse. Like many towns in the Midwest, Grand Island has a burgeoning Latino population, which has grown 262 percent in the last decade. There are almost 7,000 Guatemalan, Mexican and other Latino residents.

On Nov. 11, 2000 Mainor's kindergarten teacher asked about a red mark on his face. He told her he'd been slapped by his mother for being rough with his sister, and the school contacted Mercedes and the police. Through a translator, the police and school officials discussed with her how slapping is an inappropriate punishment and Mercedes stated through the translator that she agreed.

Then on March 21 of the next year, a school counselor noticed a mark on his face, and Mainor said his mother slapped him for refusing to get ready for school. The counselor called the police and child welfare officials, and the police went to Mercedes' home and arrested her on misdemeanor child abuse charges. Mainor and Estaela were both removed from the home and placed in state custody; a physical examination showed no other signs of abuse.

Speaking no English, little Spanish and having almost no awareness of the workings of U.S. law or bureaucracy, Mercedes thought her asylum petition had been approved and that she was in the country legally. But after she was jailed on the misdemeanor charge officials determined that there was a deportation order against her, since she had unknowingly missed a hearing on her asylum case in 1995. So Mercedes was placed in deportation proceedings and turned over to the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service), which holds detainees in the county jail.

Meanwhile, on April 9 a hearing was held on the future of Mercedes' children. She was served with a notice of the hearing while in the jail, which is right next door to the courthouse where the hearing would be held. But she didn't understand what was going on, and no one intervened to explain or make arrangements for her to attend the hearing.

At the hearing, the court noted that Mercedes did not appear despite having been served notice, and ruled that "no one appears to be claiming any interest in maternity of the children." Mercedes' fiancée, minister, and cousin were at the hearing and told the court that Mercedes was in fact in jail, but the court seemed not to notice. Mercedes never got any legal counsel for her immigration or misdemeanor case while in jail. The misdemeanor charge for the slap was dropped by a judge, but her deportation case continued.

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from AlterNet! Sign up now »