Children In Limbo After Immigration Raids Across 6 States

[AliceInWonderland]

************

kptv.com



Children In Limbo After Immigration Raids
Almost 3,000 Suspected Illegal Immigrants Arrested

POSTED: 1:36 pm PST December 13, 2006
UPDATED: 2:10 pm PST December 13, 2006

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. -- The fate of children who are U.S. citizens but whose parents live in the country illegally is uncertain following a six-state sweep Tuesday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

ICE officials rounded up and arrested almost 3,000 suspected illegal immigrants at six Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in Colorado, Nebreaska, Texas, Utah, Iowa and Minnesota on Tuesday.

A union spokesman said Wednesday that as many as 250 workers were detained in Nebraska, TV station KETV reported.

The threat of deportation could leave the city of Grand Island caring for scores of children who are U.S. citizens but whose parents now face possible deportation.

Barr Middle School in Grand Island became a shelter for children on Tuesday. Teachers and other school officials spent the day finding safe places for children of parents in federal custody.

Grand Island Schools Superintendent Steve Joel said the mothers taken into custody were released to come home and take care of their children, but that some of those children might not see their fathers for a long time.

"By 3:30, kids were pretty traumatized," Joel said. "They didn't know what they're facing when they go home."

Joel said his staff started working on what to do with the children as soon as he got the word at about 8 a.m. Tuesday.

"We had a lot of relatives come forward to take these kids. We had teachers who took children to homes they could identify with," Joel said.

Joel said some teachers even offered to take home a displaced child. In the end they didn't have to, but Joel estimated that 1,100 children were impacted by the DHS action in Grand Island.

Joel said he realizes that there is a lot of fear in the immigrant community about what might happen if parents send their children to school on Wednesday. He said he wants those parents to trust him.

"School is a safe house. We're going to protect our kids and our families," he said.

Joel said immigrant parents got a call in Spanish from the district on Tuesday night assuring them that teachers wouldn't turn their children over to federal agents.

Colorado County Hit Hard

Weld County Social Services in Colorado prepared for an expected influx of cases after hundreds of workers at the Swift plant in Greely were arrested.

At least 800 workers at the Greeley plant were identified as illegal immigrants; 300 of them will be deported within the week, said Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck.

Swift had been tipped to the planned raid earlier, Denver TV station KMGH reported. But the raid caught Weld County Social Services by surprise. The agency is responsible for the welfare of families and children in the county and it expected many families would be affected by the loss of income.

"Our wish would have been they would have let us know beforehand," said Judy Griego, director of Weld County Social Services, speaking to the Greeley Tribune. "We have kind of collapsed around this situation internally. Frankly, we don't know how many kids are involved in this now. It's kind of guesswork."

The top priority, Griego told the newspaper, is to find relatives or friends of detained parents. They would be first-choice caretakers, while the county would provide "wraparound services" such as emergency food or financial support.

All foster-care facilities in Weld and Larimer counties were put on alert by Weld County commissioners.

Weld County merchants were expected to feel the economic blow from the raid as well.

"Quite honestly, you're looking at two weeks before Christmas, and there is buying power leaving the economy," said Sarah Macquiddy, president of the Greeley Chamber of Commerce. "I'm sure that Swift will be able to survive this. But if they don't, it's really sad. The issue being made out of the illegal aliens is minuscule compared to the impact that Swift has on our economy."

Buck said that the raid adversely affects many families that are were working to put their children through school in Colorado, but there are other victims involved.

"It is a difficult day in Greeley. But it's also been a difficult day around the country as people's identities have been stolen and they've had to go and clean up their credit. And they've suffered great harm also," Buck said.

http://www.kptv.com/news/10527729/detail.html

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well I guess its kind of the parents fault for that...Its just so sad though how thousands of men leave their families at home in Mexico (and elsewhere) and don't see them for years and years and sometimes never get to see their parents again b/c the trek back and forth multiple times is not worth the money or effort. It just shows the degree of desperation and poverty facing the poor in other countries to make them leave their loved ones and everything they know for a dangerous and scary crossing and life of discrimination and marginalization in the US.