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Intro text TK from Zain

First things first. If you are worried about who will care for your children, tell Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that you have children, and ask to be released so you can care for them.

Tell ICE about your children if they are US citizens or lawful permanent residents. If your child or the person caring for them is undocumented, telling ICE may place them at risk of detention and deportation.

If you are concerned about the welfare of your children, tell ICE that you need to make a phone call right away to make sure they are being cared for properly. If you need to make more than one phone call, ask ICE or detention center staff. You can also ask to speak to a Custody and Resource Coordinator in case one is available at your detention center.

You should always ask ICE and detention center staff for assistance in doing the things you need to do to reunite with your children. If you are not satisfied with the response you get from them, or they are not providing you with the help you need, you may call the ICE Detention Reporting and Information Line (DRIL) at 888-351-4024 (9116# from inside detention), or have a relative or friend contact the ICE Field Office in the area where you are being detained.

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Contact your consulate and let them know about your situation, unless there is a reason you do not want your government to know where you are. They may be able to help you with any child custody concerns. Contact information for consulates should be available in your housing pod, but if it is not, ask ICE or detention center staff. Calls to your consulate should be free, even if you do not have funds in your account.

Stay in touch with your children. Your efforts to communicate with and visit with your children are very important evidence that you want to maintain a relationship with them. In order to keep your parental rights, you will need to show evidence of your relationship with your children and your commitment to their well-being. This is very important if you want to have input in decisions that are made for your children.

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If you were separated from your children at the border, your children may be in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), a US government agency. ORR cares for immigrant children who enter the United States alone or who are separated from their parents or guardians. For help finding or contacting your children, you may call the ICE Detention Reporting and Information Line (DRIL) at 888-351-4024 (9116# from ICE detention) or ORR at 800-203-7001 (699# from ICE detention).

You may be able to designate a relative or friend who is not detained to receive updates on when your location or your children’s location changes. Ask your Deportation Officer for more information. If you were separated from your children at the border and ICE or the detention facility stands in the way of your ability to reunite with your children, you may call the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) at 646-905-8892 or email familyseparation@aclu.org.

If you were separated from a US citizen or lawful permanent resident child at the border, your child may be in the care of a state child welfare agency. Consult the information in the section, Find Out If Your Children Are in the Child Welfare System, to locate your child and to participate in state child welfare proceedings.

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Do your best to stay involved in your children’s lives.

• Call your children, write to them, or send them drawings or pictures if they are too young to read.
  • Each detention facility has its own policy on access to phones. Review the phone calls section of your detainee handbook for information on the rules in the detention center where you are detained.
  • Detention center phone systems are not typical phone systems. Once detained, you cannot receive incoming calls. Your children’s caregiver may need to call their phone company and arrange to be able to receive collect calls from a detention center.
  • Phone calls from detention can be very expensive. If possible, ask a relative or friend to put money into your detainee account so that you can make regular phone calls to your children.
• Ask the person caring for your children to bring them for visits as often as possible.
  • Only people who have immigration status in the United States should consider visiting an immigration detention center. People without immigration status who try to enter a detention center risk being detained and put into deportation proceedings. Those who have legal status but have a criminal record, especially for a violent or drug-related charge, or who have temporary or limited legal status like Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), Temporary Protected Status (TPS), or parole, should check with an immigration lawyer before attempting to enter a detention center as they could be detained and, if they are not US citizens, put into deportation proceedings.
  • Family, friends, and service providers can locate you in detention through the ICE Online Detainee Locator. Facility location and visitation hours may also be available online.
• Stay in touch with the person who is caring for your children to find out how your children are doing.
• Make sure to ask your children (away from the caregiver, if possible) how often they go to school, how the living arrangements are, who lives in the home, and what they do in their free time.
• Ask to see report cards, reports from doctor visits or other important papers, and pictures of your children, their friends, and their activities.
• Celebrate their birthdays and other important days with them if you can.
• Pay child support if you are required to do so.

If there is another parent involved in your children’s lives, he or she has a legal right to custody of your children. (If your child’s other parent has abused you, you may be eligible for immigration status in the US. For more information, see the section, If the Other Parent of Your Child Is Available To Provide Care But You Are Afraid of Them, about the Violence against Women Act (VAWA) and U Visas.)

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• If you think there is a serious immediate threat to your children’s life or health because of the actions of their caregiver, you can call the child welfare agency or Child Protective Services (CPS) hotline in the state or county where the children are living. You can also call the nonprofit organization Childhelp at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) and ask to be connected to CPS or child welfare in the place where your children are living. You can call the hotline even if the caregiver is another parent or relative.

It is important to understand that calling child welfare will get the authorities involved in what is happening to your children. The child welfare service will investigate and may decide that the safest thing for your children is to take them from your home into their care. If your children are placed in the care of child welfare services, it may be more difficult to reunite with them. However, depending on the circumstances, this may be the best option to ensure that your children are safe.

Calling child welfare services could have immigration consequences if the children or their caregiver are undocumented. But if your children’s safety is really at risk, then it is very important to do something to protect them. If your children are in danger and you do not report it, you may be named in a petition for neglect or abuse, even if you were not involved in the abuse yourself.

• If your children are not in immediate danger, but you think that the caregiver is not taking good care of them and is not keeping them safe and healthy, you can ask another relative or friend to take over the care of your children. If you had a formal arrangement involving a court, you must ask the court to change the custody. This is a process where you may need to talk with a lawyer.

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If you have been a victim of domestic violence, you may be able to get legal immigration status in the US. Domestic violence occurs in families when one person seeks to control and intimidate another. It may involve physical abuse or other threats and behaviors that “frighten, intimidate, terrorize, manipulate, hurt, humiliate, blame, injure, or wound” the victim.

Under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), there are several kinds of immigration protection you may qualify for if you are abused, depending on your situation. If you are married to a US citizen or lawful permanent resident who is abusing you or your child, you may be able to “self petition,” or apply for your own visa under VAWA. A VAWA applicant can be the spouse (either wife or husband) of the abuser, the child of the abuser, the parent of an abused child (in this case you may apply for yourself and your children), or the parent of an abusive child.

Other victims may qualify for a U Visa. If you have been the victim of certain serious crimes, like domestic violence, you may qualify for a U visa. A U visa gives you permission to live and work in the US. In order to qualify for this visa, a person must have been the victim of a crime that happened in the US and must be helpful to law enforcement in the investigation or prosecution of the crime. The victim must have suffered serious mental or physical harm, must have information about the crime, and must have helped or be willing to help US authorities investigate the crime or prosecute the criminal(s).

For more information, consult an immigration lawyer.

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If there was no one available to care for your children when you were detained, if you were not allowed to choose your care arrangements when you were taken into custody, or if you are just not sure where your children are, they might be with the child welfare system. You should try to find out as soon as you can! The longer they remain in the system, the greater the risk is to your parental rights.

The child welfare system (sometimes called child welfare services, child protective services, or the department of children and family services) is made up of government agencies and private organizations that are responsible for protecting children. The child welfare system gets involved with families for many different reasons, most often because children have been abandoned, abused, or neglected. It may also step in when parents cannot care for them because they are in jail, in detention, or have been deported. You can learn more about the child welfare system in the section, What To Do Once You Know Your Children Are in the Care of the Child Welfare System.

The immigration system (which is run by the national US government) and the child welfare system (which is run by state and local governments) are very different. The two systems do not work well together and the people you interact with in one system may know very little about the other system.

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As soon as possible:

• Call the child welfare agency hotline for the state or county where your children are living, or have a relative or friend call. If that does not work, call the nonprofit organization Childhelp at 1-800-422-4453 and ask to be connected to child welfare in the state or county where your children are living. Hotlines usually take calls 24 hours a day, every day.
• It is often very hard for people outside the immigration detention system to find those detained inside the system. If child welfare cannot find you and does not hear from you, the child welfare caseworker and the family court may think you do not care about your children or have abandoned them.

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The child welfare system has two parts: child welfare social services and child welfare courts.

Child welfare social services:

Each state and locality has a child welfare agency. The name of the agency varies from state to state. It may be called Child Protective Services, the Division of Children and Family Services, the Department for Children, Youth and Families, or something else. Here we will call it the child welfare agency.

Child welfare caseworkers are employees of child welfare agencies, and they are assigned to children’s cases to make sure that children in the system are safe and well cared for. They investigate family situations and help parents regain custody of their children when it is temporarily lost. They also make recommendations to the court about where children should live and what services they need.

Child welfare courts:

The child welfare system in each state and locality also has courts. This court may be called a Dependency Court, Juvenile Court, Family Court, Children’s Court, or another name, depending on the state. Here we will call the court involved with child welfare proceedings the family court. Judges in these courts decide whether or not parents should have custody of their children or someone else should have custody if they have been abandoned, abused, neglected, or are not safe in their home for other reasons, such as a parent’s arrest or detention. They will also decide where children will live if they cannot live with their parents.

By law, the child welfare system’s main goal is to see that children have safe and permanent homes. The law only allows children to stay in temporary care for a limited period of time before a more permanent home must be found. This is meant to prevent children from spending long years growing up without the care of a permanent family. The law’s goal is to ensure that children have permanent homes within approximately 6-12 months of entering the child welfare system, even if that permanent home is with someone other than the parents. For this reason, you must act quickly if you know or suspect that your children are in the child welfare system.

Child welfare is required to notify you by letter that it has opened a case on your children. They may also send you information about steps you need to take to reunite with your children.

Once the child welfare system becomes involved with your children, there is a very short period of time during which they might be willing to release your children to a relative or a friend without opening a formal case. The length of time varies depending on the state and the circumstances of the case. Most likely, they will only allow this if there is a legal custody arrangement already in place (through a court) or if you gave your relative a legal document arranging custody (power of attorney or “poder”).

If there is another parent involved in your children’s lives, he or she has a legal right to custody of your children, and the child welfare system should release your children to him or her as soon as he or she contacts them. (Important note: your children will not be released to their other parent if there is an allegation of abandonment, abuse, or neglect against that parent, or if a court has previously suspended their custody rights). If the other parent has abused either you or your children, you should tell the court and the child welfare caseworker. Make sure that they are aware of any concerns you have about the other parent’s ability to care for your children. (If your child’s other parent has abused you, you may be eligible for immigration status in the US. For more information, see the section, If the Other Parent of Your Child Is Available To Provide Care But You Are Afraid of Them, about the Violence against Women Act (VAWA) and U Visas.

Child welfare generally uses three types of placements:

• Emergency shelters
• Group homes
• Foster homes
  • Kinship/relative
  • Friend
  • Stranger

In some states, a person without valid immigration papers cannot be a foster parent. In some states, child welfare caseworkers will report people without papers to immigration, which may lead to their arrest and detention.

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This information is intended to give you a general understanding of what may happen at the various stages in the child welfare process. It is not legal advice. Try to get help from a lawyer if at all possible. If you do not understand what is happening, ALWAYS ask a lawyer, the child welfare caseworker, the judge, or someone else who has expertise in the child welfare process to explain it to you.

Make sure that you try to participate in all of the family court hearings. These hearings will decide whether or not you can get your children back when you are released from detention or have been deported. If you do not participate or show that you are trying to participate, the child welfare system and the family court may think that you no longer wish to care for your children.

If the child welfare agency thinks that children need to be placed in the child welfare system, they will file a petition with the family court. This petition is the first step in child welfare proceedings.

Shortly after children are removed from the home and the petition is filed, there will be an initial hearing. This hearing is usually held within a few days after the children are removed from the home. The court will decide whether or not the children will remain in the care of the child welfare system, be allowed to return to parents (if parents are not in detention), or be allowed to live with other relatives.

If your children are still in the care of the child welfare system after the initial hearing, the family court will schedule many more hearings. These hearings are intended to provide an opportunity for you to be heard, to review the care of your children, and to determine what is in their best interest. Toward the end of the process, the judge will make a long-term plan for your children at what is sometimes called a Permanency Hearing.

There will be many people involved in the child welfare case:

• A family court judge.
• The lawyer for the state or county who will represent the child welfare system.
• Child welfare caseworker(s) from the child welfare agency.
• Representation for the children (one or several of the following):
  • A lawyer for the children (sometimes called a law guardian) who represents your children’s legal rights, and/or
  • A guardian ad litem who represents the children’s best interests, and/or
  • A Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) who is not a lawyer, but also advocates for the children’s best interests.
• A lawyer for the parent (not guaranteed). Only certain states appoint a lawyer automatically. If there is no lawyer appointed to you by a judge, it does not mean that the court has refused to provide one to you free of charge. Always ask the judge.
• The other parent of your children and his or her lawyer.

Over the course of the different hearings, the judge will make the following decisions:

• Where your children will live while they are in the child welfare system.
• Whether or not you have abandoned, abused, or neglected your children.
• What the case plan will require from you in order for you to be reunited with your children.
• Whether or not you are complying with your case plan.
• How the case is progressing and whether or not the current placement is in the best interest of the children or needs to be changed.
• Whether or not you can be reunited with your children.
• Whether or not to reject termination and continue with your case plan to let you work towards getting your children back.
• Whether or not your parental rights should be terminated—permanently.

If your parental rights are terminated, you would no longer be considered to be the legal parent of the children. The judge has to give you notice and a hearing before legally terminating your parental rights. You have the right to be at this hearing and you should ask to be there.

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Work with ICE or a detention center staff person to arrange to participate in family court. If you are not satisfied with the response you get from them, you may call the ICE Detention Reporting and Information Line (DRIL) at 888-351-4024, (9116# from detention), or have a relative or friend contact either the Field Office where you are being detained, or ICE Headquarters (ERO Contact Form). It may be helpful to mention the ICE detained parents directive when making this request.

You have the right to be notified of all hearings that affect the custody of your children. You also have a right to receive copies of the court documents and to attend all hearings.

If you cannot attend in person, ask to participate by video. If this is not possible, insist on participating by telephone. If you can only participate by telephone, ask ICE for a letter (and ask for two copies, one for yourself) stating that you are not able to attend in person. If you have a lawyer, send the letter to him or her. If you do not have a lawyer, send the letter to the family court and the child welfare caseworker.

Ask for an interpreter. You should always tell your lawyer, the child welfare caseworker, the family court and anyone involved in the child welfare process if you have trouble understanding or communicating with the court.

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KEY POINTS:

• Getting a lawyer is very important if you have a family court case.
• There are several ways you can try to get a free lawyer—try all of them, or ask others for help.
• If you want immigration legal help, you will usually need a separate lawyer for that.

A family lawyer will do the following:

• Help you understand what is happening in family court.
• Represent your wishes in court.
• Work with you and child welfare to help you protect your rights to your children.

I cannot afford a lawyer: Will the court provide one for me?

Maybe—it depends on the proceeding and the state. Some states will only provide a lawyer later on in the proceedings—such as during termination of parental rights.

What if the court will not appoint a lawyer for me?

If the court decides that you are not eligible for a court-appointed lawyer, you still have a right to have a lawyer represent you in court. Try to find a low-cost or no-cost lawyer. Many states have legal aid providers who can represent those who cannot afford a lawyer, or can only afford to pay very little. You, or a relative or friend, can check with the bar association in the state where your child welfare case is taking place to see what resources are available in that area.

What if I cannot find a no-cost or low-cost family lawyer to help me?

If you cannot find a no-cost or low-cost family lawyer through any of the resources listed above, and you can afford to pay for one, you can hire a lawyer to represent you.

I need an immigration lawyer. How can I find one?

Try the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s Find an Immigration Lawyer tool.

For free or low-cost immigration legal services, consult the Immigration Advocates Network’s National Immigration Legal Services Directory.

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KEY POINTS:

• Read and understand your case plan—the child welfare plan that makes goals and sets conditions for reunification with your children.
• Ask your lawyer, ICE, and caseworker for help if there are conditions you have to follow.

As part of the family court process, you may be given a case plan (also called a reunification plan or a service plan). This plan lists the requirements you must follow to prove that you are willing and able to reunite with your children.

The case plan will require you to complete certain activities. These may include things like regular visits and phone calls with children, parenting classes, counseling, drug or alcohol treatment, drug testing, or anger management classes. It may also require you to find housing and work if you are released.

You have the right to see your case plan. If you do not receive a copy, ask the child welfare caseworker or family court for it. You should ask the judge and the child welfare caseworker to change things in the plan that are:

• Based on inaccurate information, for example, you have never used alcohol, but the plan requires you to complete alcohol treatment.
• Difficult for you to do, for example, you are supposed to visit your children weekly, but they live 100 miles away from where you are detained.
• Impossible for you to do, for example, none of the classes you need to take are available in detention, or you do not have authorization to work in the US.

Be creative in finding ways to access classes or activities that are not available in detention. For example:

• If your plan includes parenting and anger management classes, ask the child welfare caseworker for the names of books used in court-approved classes. Then, ask the detention center librarian to order the books (in different languages if possible) and put them in the library and housing pods. If the detention center has electronic tablets, see if any are available for free or purchase.
• Ask your lawyer, relatives, or friends to look for parenting and other required classes that you could take by mail. You should also ask the child welfare caseworker to help you. In addition to classes required by the case plan, classes that would help you complete a GED (a series of tests that show you have the equivalent of a US high school diploma) or improve your job skills would be helpful.
• Participate in work and other activities that are available in detention, and ask for certificates or letters that say you were a hard-working participant.
• Ask people who know you and your children to send you letters that state why you are a good parent. You can show these to the child welfare caseworker and the family court.

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Because parenting classes and other required programs are rarely available in detention facilities, visits and phone calls are even more important in demonstrating that you want to maintain a relationship with your children.

Detainees are allowed to have visits from their children in accordance with the detention center’s visiting rules. Each center may have slightly different rules for visitation. Read the visitation section in your detainee handbook or ask ICE or detention center staff for assistance. It may be helpful to mention the ICE detained parents directive when making this request.

If child welfare is involved, you will need the help of the child welfare caseworker, as well as the caregiver. You will also need visitation to be included in your case plan. If visitation is included in the plan, you have the right to visits with your children (though visits might be supervised by a person chosen by the child welfare system). If your case plan does not have a visitation order, ask your lawyer or the child welfare caseworker to help you get one. Visitation is supposed to be included in the case plan unless child welfare feels that it would result in a threat to your children.

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If it is not possible for your children to visit, try to communicate with them in any way you can. It can be very helpful to write them letters. Even if they do not know how to read, a foster parent or child welfare caseworker can read your letters to them.

Phone calls are also a good way to stay in touch with your children. Each detention facility has its own policy on access to phones. Review the phone calls section of your detainee handbook for information on the rules in the detention center where you are detained.

Detention center phone systems are not typical phone systems. Once detained, you cannot receive incoming calls. Your relatives and friends, your children’s caregiver, your lawyer, the child welfare caseworker, and others involved in your children’s care or custody may need to call their phone company and arrange to be able to receive collect calls from a detention center.

Phone calls from detention can be very expensive. If possible, ask a relative or friend to put money into your detainee account so that you can make regular phone calls to your children. If that is not possible, ask ICE or detention center staff if you can make free phone calls to your children so that you can comply with your case plan. You may also need to ask for free calls to communicate with the child welfare caseworker or the family court.

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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.

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If your children’s other biological parent was ordered to pay you child support at any time, those payments should continue even if you are detained. If your children are in the child welfare system, the family court may redirect the payment to the child welfare system. Otherwise, you can contact the child support agency to talk about the different options for sending your payments to your children’s caretaker.

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If you were ordered to pay child support before being detained, do you still need to pay while in detention? Generally, yes. Your child support order does not stop because you are detained. Even if you were behind on your child support payments before being detained, you still need to pay. But, you can contact either the court that ordered you to pay child support or the child support agency handling your case, to request that the payment be reduced or suspended while you are in detention and are unable to work. This request for “modification” may be made whenever there is a “substantial change in circumstances, such as being taken into custody. Make the request for payment reduction as soon as possible, because an early request will help you keep your child support debt as small as possible while you are detained. If your request is denied, you can usually appeal the denial. The court or child support agency in your state can tell you how to file an appeal, which is called a “request for review and modification.” It is also a good idea to talk with a lawyer who specializes in family issues.

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Or, go to next section: If You Are Released from Detention