Dapa To Benefit Thousands Of Us Citizen Children

By Author: Rayford Marks
Total Articles: 185
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President Barack Obama recently announced that parents of US Citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident children who are not enforcement priorities will be safe from deportation. This executive action will result in numerous benefits not only for those parents, but for thousands of children and for the population of the United States generally.

There are almost 5 million children in the United States with at least one undocumented parent. According to a report from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), over 70,000 people with at least one US citizen child were deported in 2013. While many of them had criminal charges which led to their deportation, almost 11,000 of them had no criminal convictions. These deportations left over 100,000 US citizen children with either no parent, or with only one parent. The detention or deportation of a parent has an extremely detrimental impact on the US citizen children who are left behind. According to a study conducted by the Center for American Progress (CAP) in 2012, children with detained or deported parents experience increased crying, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, clingy behavior, ...
... and increased fear and anxiety. Many of them associate all law enforcement officers with immigration officers, and are therefore fearful of police. Numerous studies have concluded that such fear and anxiety in childhood can have lasting detrimental effects on a child’s development.

Not only US citizen children are affected by these deportations—the US citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident spouses who remain in the United States experience emotional and financial difficulties. The vast majority of people who are deported are men, leaving children and single mothers to struggle for food, housing, and financial support. While most children are left with another parent or a caretaker after the deportation of a parent, many US citizen children have no one to care for them. Over 5,000 US citizen children have been placed in foster care as a result of deportation, at a cost of over $25,000 per child per year, paid for by US taxpayers.

The benefits of deferred action for parents of US citizen children will not only benefit the US citizen children and the parents, but will benefit the United States as a whole. Many undocumented parents are currently unemployed, due to fear of discovery, or employed by people who pay them cash under the table. What this means is that all of these individuals, whose numbers total in the millions, are not paying taxes to the government. If they are eligible for DAPA and are able to obtain a work permit, they can come out of the shadows and obtain legal, paying jobs. This will allow them to pay taxes to both the federal and state governments, and help the US economy. They will make more money, which will allow them to spend more money, and become financially contributing members of society.

Our Immigration Lawyers in Charlotte NC practice exclusively in the area of U.S. Immigration and Nationality Law. We provide affordable immigration advice and representation to individuals, families and companies locally and worldwide. As your Immigration Lawyer in Charlotte NC we strive to construct personalized legal strategies for our clients, and deliver quality advice and competitive services in a trustful, honest, and professional manner. Our Immigration Lawyers in Charlotte offers clients absolute confidentiality, a rigorous and innovative approach to your legal problems, while the firm's light structure allows for undivided personal attention and affordable representation.

If you or a loved one wants to know more about DAPA, do not hesitate to contact us by calling (704) 900-2925 or emailing contact@charlottelaw.net

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