Washington- Fears of the US President’s administration policies escalate Donald Trump Regarding the expansion of the group deportation program for immigrants with an illegal situation, and its impact on millions of families within USEspecially those that include children with American citizenship.
In a country that is supposed to be a “homeland for immigrants”, about 5.6 million American children live in families in which a parent who does not have legal residency, according to estimates issued by the Brookings Research Foundation.
Although these children have full citizenship rights, they are facing a threat to the loss of a parent at any moment.
While the US administration justifies these policies with security and legal considerations, social experts, social workers and human rights organizations warn that social and humanitarian cost may be fatal, especially for children who may find themselves in social care systems that have not been designed to confront this type of wide family dispersion.
Live anxiously
The social specialist in the state of Texas, Luna Rodriguez, who works with migratory families of different nationalities and their legal status, confirms that these families are always concerned. “We work with families of learning their children from the age of 7 years, what they should do if they do not find their parents at home,” she says.
Rodriguez adds to Al -Jazeera Net, that these children often carry psychological shock to school and social life even in the absence of actual deportation, as fear – in her opinion – is enough to undermine their feelings of reassurance.
Among the stories that reflect the daily panic in these families due to the tightening of the deportation policies, the story of Ahmed (a pseudonym), an Iraqi father of three children, who lives on the outskirts of Virginia, and received months ago a notification from the Immigration Department of reactivating a deportation order issued against him years ago.
I hope to settle his legal status, Ahmed later married a permanent resident, but his current situation did not meet the complex conditions imposed by the laws of immigration, and although his three children were born in America and holding her nationality, this does not legally prevent their father’s deportation at any moment.
His wife says to Al -Jazeera Net, “I expect every day to return from work and I do not find it at home, and we live a tension always, and we do not participate in the activities of the school, and we do not go to the doctor except for the extreme necessity, and my younger daughter suffers from a panic if she sees anyone in a security dress on the street.”
Strict procedures
Trump began immediately after assuming the presidency to implement a series of procedures that expanded the powers of deportation and reduced the legal protection of migrants.
His administration canceled rules that were prohibiting the arrest of immigrants in sensitive places such as schools, hospitals and places of worship, and expanded what is known as rapid deportation to include everyone who entered the country in the last two years, even if they are not seized on the border.
The government also increased the means of coordination with the local police to implement immigration laws, and re -directed the tasks of federal agencies such as the Tax Department and the drug control department towards supporting immigration priorities.
Last March, Trump activated the “Foreigners’ Law” to accelerate the deportation of immigrants without the guarantees of litigation.
These policies have created an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty within migrant societies, and even those who possess American citizenship, and according to a recent study by the “Pew” research center, about a quarter of American adults, either feel personal concern about the possibility of deportation or fear that one of their family members or close to them is deported.
Some of them mistakenly believe that the presence of children with American citizenship is immunizing their relatives from the risk of deportation, but the American law does not give this privilege automatically, and family dispersion is not a sufficient legal reason to stop the implementation of deportation decisions against one of the parents.
According to federal legislation, deportation can only be stopped in exceptional cases in which the family is proven, that American children will face “serious damage” to leave one of the parents, which are strict criteria that are often difficult to prove in the courts, and reject many requests for not fulfilling them.
As for the request for reunification, the American child can only apply for 21 years, even if the father has lived with him from his birth, and even then, the request is not accepted if the father has not entered into a legal way, except in rare cases where conditional exemptions are granted.
The authority of regret
The lawyer for immigration cases in Virginia, Haider Sumissim, believes that the Trump administration uses its “spacious” executive authority and strict procedures, such as imposing more difficulties to submit asylum applications, and instructions to accelerate the decision -making and increase the number of trials per day to deport the largest number of immigrants.
Simisim assures Al -Jazeera Net, that families are mixed with the legal situation of “real terror”, which makes many of them think seriously about leaving the country voluntarily, although their lives may be threatened in their countries of origin.
He cited the story of a husband who decided to abandon the file of asylum and return with his wife and children to one of the countries The Middle East Despite the dangers imposed, but he “risked his life to risk his freedom and move away from his family,” as he put it.
Laila (a pseudonym), an Egyptian residing in Maryland with her newborn husband and child, tells how her family lives “miserable social and economic conditions” because of the restrictions imposed on asylum seekers.
“I entered America in a legal manner and I have a permanent residence card, while my husband has entered with a temporary visa, and he later was forced to submit asylum after the exacerbation of the security risks he faces in Egypt Because of his political opinions. “
“We are afraid of our arrest if we go back, but in return it is not allowed to work during the period of studying the asylum file, which may take a year or more, and we feel as if we are stuck between life and death.”
American laws state that asylum seekers cannot obtain a work permit until 180 days after submitting the application, provided that they have not been registered with any delay in the procedures, and as a result of this condition, many of them find that they are stuck in a several -month legal and social vacuum without any source of income.
Challenges
The social specialist Luna Rodriguez monitors the long -term emotional impact on children in particular, and says, “Some children are forced to represent themselves in immigration sessions, which is incredible.”
Rodriguez summarizes from its field experience to the most prominent challenges that these families suffer from three levels:
- Legally: long delays in file processing, may extend years, and deportation campaigns increase fear and refrain from attending trial dates or immigration interviews for fear of immediate arrest.
- Psychological: The members of these families, especially children, live in deep psychological effects that start from the moment of migration and continue due to separation and the difficulty of integration.
- In practice: Families suffer from severe poorer as a result of depriving their members of the right to work, in addition to the difficulties of obtaining health care, housing and education.