Effect of ICE Raids on Children
On December 12, 2006, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) carried out enforcement actions on Swift & Company meatpacking plants in six states, including a plant in Worthington, Minnesota. The raids resulted in the arrest of over 1,500 unauthorized immigrants. They also left hundreds of children—most of them citizens and legal residents—without their parents and with no way of finding them.
There are 40,000 American children in Minnesota with at least one undocumented parent. There are four million citizen children across the country in this same position. These kids—who represent one out of every twenty students in our nation’s schools—live in constant fear that their parents could be detained and deported at any time.
Last year, Senator Franken introduced a bill, the Humane Enforcement and Legal Protections for Children Act, or the HELP Separated Children Act, to address these problems. If enacted, this bill will protect children in any immigration enforcement action by allowing kids to stay informed about their parents' whereabouts, allowing parents to arrange for their children's care and report abuse and neglect, and ensuring that children aren't forced to witness or translate their parents' interrogations.
