100,000+ Deportees in the U.S. Had Children

That's right, in the past decade (between 1998-2007), more than 100,000 parents whose children are U.S. citizens were deported, a Department of Homeland Security's investigation has found. This is just a shock to me. I knew the numbers were high but wow.

According to the NY Times article, the parents were removed from the U.S. due to violations or because they had committed crimes. The removals of the 108,434 parents were among the approximately 2.2 million carried out by immigration officials.

Here's a statement from Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y:

''I am saddened, but not surprised to learn that our government, in its harsh anti-immigrant stance, has split hundreds of thousands of families apart over the past decade.''

Interestingly enough, children of immigrants born in the U.S. are automatic citizens but cannot petition for their parents to become legal residents until they are 21. I'm glad my parents were able to become legal residents, however, since they've been here (1980) they have not become U.S. citizens; that's another long story.