Last week we blogged on the plight of a father desperately fighting to maintain his parental rights after he was deported to Mexico in 2010 for being repeatedly ticketed in North Carolina. When the father was deported, his three sons were split up and placed in the care of two foster families because the mother was deemed an unfit parent.
Over the last two years, the father has been desperately fighting to regain custody of his children so that his three sons can live with him in Mexico and they can all be together as a family again. The father says, “I love my kids and I will do whatever I need to be with them. I grew up without my mother and father. I didn’t want my kids to grow up and face the same thing. I didn’t want them to say some day I did not fight for them.”
Thankfully, after much effort and the aid of an immigration attorney, the three young boys are set to be reunited with their father tomorrow. A judge has ruled that the boys be returned to their father and live with him in a hotel in North Carolina until Feb. when the judge will make the final ruling, officially allowing the family to be reunited and live together in Mexico.
While this specific case has garnered a lot of media attention, it is not unique. A report details that in 2011 an estimated 5,100 children in 22 states across the country were separated from the parents and placed in foster care after their parents were detained or deported.
An advocacy group in Washington D.C. highlights this case as evidence of a serious issue that needs to be addressed. The effort has successfully assisted in passing laws aimed at prohibiting similar situations. A spokesperson for this Washington D.C. group said, “Hopefully, this case will make the child welfare system aware of due process, so that this type of this doesn’t happen again.”
Source: The Huffington Post, “NC judge: Return US-born children to deported dad,” Michael Biesecker, Nov. 27, 2012
- Our firm has experience handling similar cases. For more information, please visit our Washington D.C. family reunification page.