Shattered Families: The Perilous Intersection of Immigration Enforcement and the Child Welfare System

Deportations and detentions of undocumented immigrants are destroying families, according to a ground breaking report by the Applied Research Center (ARC). The report documents, for the first time, the national scale and scope of this problem.  When parents are detained or deported, their children are placed in foster care.  Parents face a difficult, if not impossible, battle to regain custody because of barriers by immigration enforcement and the child welfare system. ARC estimates that at least 5,100 children live in foster care whose parents were deported or detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Applied Research Center is an Atlantic grantee through the Reconciliation & Human Rights and Children & Youth Programmes in the United States.