Thousands of children of deported parents get stuck in foster care, By Francisco Miraval, November 17, 2011, Denver Post: “In the United States today there are at least 5,000 children in foster care because their parents were deported or have been arrested due to irregular immigration status, according to a recent report prepared by the Applied Research Center, a New York organization that promotes social and racial justice. The actual number of immigrant children in this situation could be much higher, said Seth Wessler, author of the report, adding that whatever the true figure is, it is likely to triple over the next five years if immigration laws do not change and if the emphasis on enforcement continues. Part of the problem in estimating how many children of deported immigrants are transferred to foster families is that national data simply do not exist, said Wessler, because neither Immigration and Customs Enforcement nor social services departments are required to compile the information. Moreover, within many states, such as Colorado, each county operates independently with regard to foster fami- lies. If the data exist, these agencies have no obligation to share it…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty