Parents Deported, Children Deserted; Advocates Warn Of Growing Crisis

New research is shedding light on the issue of parent-child separation among immigrant families, which has become more pervasive in Wisconsin and across the country under heightened federal immigration enforcement. Migrant advocates called it a crisis in need of urgent attention.

The Women’s Refugee Commission, an international nonprofit, recently interviewed some of the hundreds of deportees they said are arriving in Honduras daily.

Zain Lakhani, director of migrant rights and justice for the commission, said they found deported parents are overwhelmingly not being allowed to take their children with them or arrange child care, even when they are as young as two months old. She pointed out it violates U.S. immigration policy.

“We spoke with dozens and dozens of parents who were coming off the plane, some inconsolable because they did not know where their children are.”