Immigration Dividing Families One Parent At A Time

Immigration has existed in the United States since before it was first “discovered” by Christopher Columbus and before the scenery was altered to accommodate the growing population. Immigrants have been everyone starting with the British, the Irish, the Chinese and most recently people of Canada and  Latin America, including but limited to Mexicans, Ecuadorians, Cubans and Salvadorans. People immigrate to new countries, such as the United States, due to fear of crime in their home countries and because of the “American dream.” Due to terrorist attacks, such as 9/11, the concept of immigration has become a great “problem” and may people are against the idea of migrating to a new country for safety and for an opportunity to have a better life. Under the Obama administration the program Secure Communities was created in order to deport any and all undocumented high status criminals. However, the program has been separating families in the process.  

On the ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, website Secure Communities explained as a  is a simple and common sense way to carry out ICE's priorities. It uses an already-existing federal information-sharing partnership between ICE and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that helps to identify criminal aliens without imposing new or additional requirements on state and local law enforcement ( http://www.ice.gov/secure-communities ). Although ICE prioritizes the removal of criminal aliens, those who pose a threat to public safety, and repeat immigration violators, they are removing innocent people and are calling it collateral damage.

In of the many websites that publish deportation stories I found the story of Nicole, whose husband was deported back to Egypt for missing a court date. In her blog she wrote, “Many times I ask myself, ‘What did we do wrong’ I haven't killed anyone, or sold drugs, or done anything illegal in fact. The only thing wrong that my husband did was miss a court date, plain and simple”(http://reformimmigration foramerica.org /blog/latest-news/item/1385nicole -s- story-a-father-deported-a-family-separated.html ). Her husband was deported and her children were left fatherless all because he was an undocumented person who missed his court date. This seems ridiculous because it would have been a documented person he or she would have gotten a warning and fee and would have been allowed back his family.
I am all for deporting all undocumented people who pose a threat to me or my community but I am not in any way, shape, or form for separating innocent families. I have lived the separation of a family first hand and, although it wasn’t because my parents were deported, I have seen and felt was it is like to wake up one morning and not see your parents at the breakfast table and not knowing when they would be back was torture. There has to be a better way to capture, identify and remove all undocumented threats in United States, a way that does not cause the collateral damage that has been caused, the separation of innocent families.