	There is a humanitarian crisis occurring within both our community and across the nation.  Due to lack of any type of immigration reform, millions of families live in fear and many are shredded apart.  Both Immigration law and enforcement are complex issues with many different parts. There is the issue of the “Dreamers” who are people brought to the US as children or infants by their parents.  They have lived their entire lives in the United States and its culture.  They too have no path to legality and are subject to deportation when/if they are discovered.  Many of them have no family in their country of origin or don’t even speak the language.  Young children, who call the United States home and consider themselves Americans, are deported to many times a dangerous border with no contacts or assistance for survival.  Another issue is that of the family separations.
	At least 5,100 children are in foster care—in only 22 reportable states—due to their parents being deported. This number is on the rise and does not include those already adopted.  When a parent is picked up and deported, many times their US citizen children are placed into state custody if there is no family member to care for the children.  The parent is not afforded the opportunities to appear at the children’s hearing because they are either in immigration detention or have already been deported.  The state and immigration system do not communicate and when the parent does not show up for the hearing, the court places the child/children into the foster care system since the parent “gave up “rights by not appearing.  Other children are permanently separated from their mother or father, but remain in the US with family or friends. Many nuclear families are living apart also.
	Close to two million people have been deported since 2009.  In 2010, ICE began to keep track of how many deportees are parents to US citizen children. The answer is 23 percent. Roughly 23 percent of all deportees leave behind US citizen children.  These children suffer without one of their parents.  In most cases the separation becomes permanent.  If the child does leave the US to be with the parent, they are not afforded the education, health, and other benefits that they may receive in the US.  Depending on the country they may also face hardships from corruption, safety, low-wages, language barriers, and they may not be afforded school and healthcare because they are US citizens.  Many children suffer greatly when they too are exiled from the US to be with their parent.  According to Mexican statistics, over 300,000 US children are living in México with deported parents.  This is only one country who has a statistic.  It is unclear on how many US citizen children and spouses are exiled from the US to be with a loved one.  The laws do not support family preservation in this sense.
Once the parent is deported, he/she faces a ten year bar from applying for a visa.  This leaves few choices for the deportee to keep their family together.  Either the family has to move to be with the deportee, or the deportee has to do what he/she can to be with their family.  Since the parent—and every other immigrant who has been in the US in an unauthorized status for 180 days or more—faces the ten year bar, they are forced to be separated from their family for at least a decade if the family decides to stay in the US.  This portion of the law also prevents people living in the US in an unauthorized status from attempting to “fix” their status since the only way is to leave the US and then face the bar for a decade.  This bar forces families to have to make drastic decisions.  Regardless of what that decision is, the dynamics of the family is going to endure hardships and suffering.  
