New Data on Kids of Undocumented

This week the Pew Hispanic Center came out with a study on undocumented immigrants here in the US. One of the big points to come out of the data was that the number of American citizen children who have at least one undocumented parent has increased rapidly since 2003.

According to the Pew report, approximately 4 million American children have at least one parent who is undocumented. This finding shows that a case could be made for giving those parents legal status, especially since about one-third of these children live in poverty.

The children of the undocumented have been in the line of fire in the immigration debate, as they are often called "anchor babies" or it is suggested that parents facing deportation either leave their kids here in the US or take them back to their home countries with them. The case of Elvira Arellano, which the media covered extensively back in 2007, is a good example of this. She chose to leave her young son Saul here in the US to give him a better opportunity for advancement.

I am all for expediting legalized status for parents of American born children. It would be a good first step to raising some tax revenue from these immigrants, and it could put an end to families being torn apart by ICE raids and deportations. The fact is that the US worker is going to have to support a glut of retiring baby boomers in the near future. Why not tap into the resources that these immigrants bring to help support our country and its infrastructure? The National Foundation for American Policy estimates that over the next 50 years, new, legal immigrants would provide $407 billion in present value to our Social Security system.

America's Voice has a pretty good video making the case for immigration reform based upon humanity and compassion for families and their children. Tell us what you think about it:

 

Families, Faith and Action on Immigration from americasvoicetv on Vimeo.