Immigration Raids Can Divide Families

Sergio Santibanez, 13, foreground, is one of three siblings cared for by an older sister, Luissana, background, as shown in their apartment Friday, March 9, 2007, in Austin, Texas. Luissana is a student at the University of Texas in Austin. They await the fate of their mother, Sergia, who has been held in a Houston immigration detention center for nearly 18 months. (AP Photo/Harry Cabluck) (Harry Cabluck - AP)

In Houston, a newly formed coalition of community groups, churches and advocacy organizations is scrambling to help dozens of families struggling to stay afloat after a husband or wife was taken away. And residents of an apartment complex in Houston that has been raided several times have formed an emergency child care network, which jumps in to care for children left alone by a deported parent.

"The Department of Homeland Security is just carrying out the law they have to carry out. Under the law, there is no legal basis for considering the rights of families. Congress may have to act for that to change," Urban Institute demographer Randolph Capps said.

Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., is sponsoring a bill now before the House Judiciary Committee that would give immigration judges more discretion in weighing the effect on families when deporting an illegal immigrant.

But any immigration reform legislation will probably have a tough time passing Congress in the current political climate, said Bob Stein, a political scientist at Rice University in Houston.

"Immigration reform seemed like something Democrats and Republicans could agree on, but partisan fighting and the presidential campaigns make it hard for any candidate to carry the battle," he said.

Until 1996, immigration judges were allowed to consider family hardship when deciding whether to deport legal residents charged with certain crimes. That changed under an immigration reform law.

Luissana Santibanez, a 23-year-old student at the University of Texas in Austin, has been taking care of three younger siblings while their mother, Sergia, held in a Houston immigration detention center for nearly 18 months, fights deportation.

Sergia Santibanez, a legal resident for more than 15 years, was ordered deported after she served four months behind bars for transporting illegal immigrants. She said the illegal immigrants were three friends who asked for a ride, and that she didn't know their immigration status and never asked.

"The hardest thing is that my children are suffering and I can't do anything about it," Sergia, who worked in a factory and cleaned houses before her arrest, said by telephone from the detention center. "This will destroy their future."

Luissana has been supporting her two brothers and one sister on food stamps and student grants. All are U.S. citizens.

"As a country, we should not put our youngest citizens at risk of hunger, homelessness and living without parents," said Ali Noorani, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. "Our immigration system has to be squared with values."