On Wednesday, Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard reacted to the release of an Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) Report regarding the annual deportation of parents of U.S. citizens. The report reveals that more than 46,000 parents of U.S. children were deported in the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2011; 1,500 alone from the Los Angeles area. Roybal-Allard and other Democratic members of the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee requested the report."This report is the latest example of the terrible human toll our broken immigration system is taking on families. Tearing families apart like this is inhumane and completely unacceptable," said Roybal-Allard. "We can't continue to claim to value families while deporting parents in the tens of thousands. This must stop." These deportations have real social and economic costs. According to a 2011 report by the Applied Research Center, more than 5,000 children living in foster care have parents who were detained or deported from the United States. ICE is in the process of implementing a new prosecutorial discretion policy which takes into account family ties in making deportation decisions. "I believe it is critical that the new guidelines are interpreted as generously as possible by agency officials to prevent even more families from being torn apart," Roybal-Allard said. Contributed by the office of Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard

********** Published: March 29, 2012 - Volume 10 - Issue 50