Four-year-old Emily Ruiz was on her way home to New York from a trip to Guatemala with her grandfather when the pair was detained by immigration authorities during a stopover at Dulles International Airport. Emily, a United States citizen, and her grandfather, a Guatemalan traveling with a valid work visa, were detained because of an immigration infraction that supposedly occurred two decades before. Ruiz and his granddaughter were told they would not be allowed to stay in the country and were deported to Guatemala.
Meanwhile, Emily’s father, Leonel Ruiz, was waiting for his daughter’s plane at Kennedy Airport, which arrived without her on it. He soon learned that, despite Emily’s U.S. citizenship, his daughter was deported because of her grandfather’s immigration infraction.
Emily’s deportation launched a legal battle for her return and a national debate over the separation of children from their immigrant parents. Officials at Customs and Border Protection say they offered Mr. Ruiz the opportunity to pick up his daughter at the airport (which he denies), and that he “elected to have her return to Guatemala with her grandfather.” Yet an encounter with immigration officials would have posed a serious risk to Mr. Ruiz, who could have been detained or deported. Mr. Ruiz, who speaks little English, said that he spoke with an agent over the phone in English and was presented with two choices: Emily could enter the custody of the State of Virginia or she and her grandfather could return to Guatemala.
While Emily was eventually returned to her parents in the United States, her case highlights a critical component of the immigration reform debate. Laws that threaten deportation and the separation of parents from their children make it difficult for undocumented immigrants to report crimes, participate in prosecution, or seek life-saving support services. Legal Momentum's Immigrant Women Program advocates for immigration policies that acknowledge the constitutional right of immigrant parents to care for, have custody of, and control over their children. The separation of U.S. citizen children and immigrant parents can have a devastating impact on families.
There are 5.5 million children who have at least one undocumented parent in the United States. Legal Momentum believes that reforms in immigration laws and policies will be most effective in improving conditions of immigrant women and their families when they are grounded in an understanding of the challenges and circumstances confronted by many immigrant women in America.
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- Learn more about Legal Momentum's Immigrant Women Program.
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