"Immigrant America
The High Cost of Deporting Parents"

This first section of the Immigration Portal is based on a video which introduces many topics covered in subsequent sections.  It relates the experiences of a Guatemalan father who was deported after living in the U.S. over twenty years along with those of his wife and their five children who continued to live in Utah.  The story could just as well have been about any other of the hundreds of thousands of families of Mexican, African, Asian, or Middle Eastern background that have been separated as a result of the draconian immigration law of 1996.  The film won the Audience Award at the Bellingham Human Rights Film Festival.

This excellent video produced by Roy Germano,1 Professor in the International Relations Department at New York University, is unusual in that it goes beyond describing the deportation ordeal of an unauthorized father from Guatemala, who owned a house framing business, and his family.  It also introduces the 1996 "Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act" and reveals its failure to respect the human rights of unauthorized immigrants.  It reveals some of the impacts of deportation on the wider community by describing the loss of jobs in immigrant owned businesses, the loss of taxes paid by immigrants, and the need for taxpayers to supplement the financial needs of deportees' families who have become impoverished without the income of their breadwinner. Roy Germano points out that American taxpayers covered over $25 billion dollars for the cost of deportations over five years during the Obama administration.  Subsequent sections of this immigrant portal will explore these topics from the perspectives of demographers, economists, tax reporters, and researchers analyzing the effect of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activites in communities across the country.  

Watch the video.

 Reference

1. VICE News.  "Immigrant America:  The High Cost of Deporting Parents."   March 29, 2014.
http://www.theothersideofimmigration.com/more-films.html

The Fundamentals of Immigration Policy
Human Rights, the Law, and the Families at Risk

II.Respect for Human Rights Should Be the Basis of Immigration III. Immigration Law and Public Policy IV. Immigrants at Risk

The  Financial Impact of Immigration Policies

V. Everybody Loses When Immigrants Are Deported   VI. The Costs of Deportation:  Financial Help to Families Education for Traumatized Children   VII. Help for Adults with Lifelong Brain Impairments  Caused by Toxic Stress in Childhood: Summary of Sample City and State Costs  VIII. The Economic Effects of Deportation vs Citizenship   IX. The Big Contribution of Immigrants to US and MN Economy

The Impact of ICE on Local Communities

X. Deportation Interferes with Reducing MN's Disparities XI. The Impact of Ice and Local Police Policies on Immigrants and the Community XII. Immigrants Response to Increased Deportation without Recent Serious Crime XIII. Why MN Should Minimize ICE Involvement

How Trade Policy Influences Immigration

XIV. The Impact of Industrial Agriculture on Climate Change, Water Pollution, and Farmers' Incomes XV. Mexican Civil Society Platform on the Start of Renegotiation of NAFTA XVI. Managing Immigration