If you want your children to join you in your country of origin, ask ICE to help you obtain passports and make travel arrangements for them. You can also ask ICE if they would provide you, your attorney, consulate, and/or your children’s case worker with advance notice of when you will be deported so that your children’s travel arrangements can be coordinated with yours. 

Your children will need passports. They may also need letters of permission from their other parent to leave the U.S. They may also need permission from your home country to enter and live there, such as a visa. If your children are not U.S. citizens, you will need to contact the consulate of their birth country to find out how to apply for passports. If your children are U.S. citizens, make sure they have important documents like birth certificates, U.S. passports and social security cards before they leave the U.S. These documents are proof of U.S. citizenship that may be needed later. They should also have copies of school and medical records to help them get established in your home country. 

If you are trying to make childcare or travel arrangements for your children from detention and are unable to do so, call the DRIL line and ask for help. You can contact the DRIL line at 888-351-4024 or by entering code 9116# on the phone in your housing unit. 

If your children are not US citizens or lawful permanent residents, talk to an immigration attorney before making any travel plans. There may be legal consequences if a child leaves the US while there is an open immigration case. Your child may also be eligible for immigration relief in the US even if you are not.

If your children have a court-approved caregiver but are not in the child welfare system, you will need permission from the family court for them to travel. If you take them out of the country without the permission of the caregiver and the court, you may be arrested for kidnapping.

If your children are in the child welfare system, child welfare will decide whether or not they will be allowed to join you in your home country. Sometimes child welfare does not want to reunite children with a parent who has been deported because it is complicated to do so. This is not a good enough reason for child welfare to refuse reunification.

If you want your children to stay in the US, it is a good idea to give someone legal permission to care for and make decisions about them. Even if they will be left in the care of their other parent, you may need to make it clear that their other parent can make decisions without your presence or input. It is best to ask a US family lawyer about your options and get their help to complete the right paperwork. If you cannot get legal help to do this while you are in detention, you can still give someone your childcare power of attorney before you leave the US and then discuss more permanent options with a US family lawyer once you are in your country of origin.

If you are deported and your children are in the child welfare system, the family court will still have custody of your children. You will still be expected to complete the case plan before you can be reunited with your children, and the family court hearings will proceed just as if you were in the U.S. If you are deported, you still have the right to help from child welfare in reuniting with your children as long as your case plan has not been stopped.

If you have not done so already and are comfortable doing so, you can contact the consulate of your country to let them know about your situation and ask them to assist you in reuniting with your children. They may be able to advocate for you in family court and with child welfare, even if your children are U.S. citizens. Many countries recognize children born in the U.S. with foreign national parents as having citizenship in the parent’s country as well.

If you were separated from your children at the border and are going to be deported, you may have the right to ask to be deported with your children. Ask your Deportation Officer for the form “Notice of Potential Rights for Certain Detained Noncitizen Parents or Legal Guardians Separated from their Minor Children.” For help or questions, you may contact the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) at 646-905-8892 or familyseparation@aclu.org.

When biological parents live apart from their children, they may be ordered to pay money to their children’s primary parent or other caregiver. Even if you have not had to pay child support in the past, this could change if someone else is caring for your children or they are in the child welfare system. Also, if your children receive certain public benefits like Medicaid or food stamps while living apart from you, or are placed in government-funded foster care, you could be ordered to pay child support to the state. 

Each US state has different agreements with countries to facilitate child support payments. If you are deported to a country that does not have an agreement with the state where your child support order is in place, you will have to make your own payment arrangements. 

Contact either the court or the child support agency that manages your child support order if you need help with a child support issue, including making child support payments from outside the US.