The following is a statement from Jeanne Butterfield, Special Counsel, The Raben Group, Washington DC and Former Executive Director, American Immigration Lawyers Association – re: Emily Ruiz

There are over 5 million children in the U.S. today who have at least one undocumented parent.  And 4 million of these children, like Emily Ruiz, are U.S. citizens.

Emily is now back with her parents, where she belongs.  She should never have been separated from them by U.S. immigration authorities.

CBP has no jurisdiction over a U.S. citizen traveling with a valid travel document.

If CBP was concerned with the welfare of this child when she entered the U.S. given that they were detaining her grandfather, the adult with whom she was traveling, they had at least three other options:

·         They could have taken Emily to her connecting flight and put her in the care of the airline who was transporting her, to take her on to New York where her parents were waiting;

·         They could have allowed her parents to come and pick her up or send a 3^rd party (family friend or relative) to come get her;

·         If they had concerns about her welfare, they could have called Child Protective Services who could take temporary custody and reunite her with her parents.

CBP had absolutely no basis to deny custody to parents based solely on their immigration status.

Situations of separation most often arises in the context of ICE arrests and detention.  Even in these situations, undocumented children are reunited with undocumented parents.

The fact that this incident happened at all seems to be the result of the currently polarized and ugly political climate in which undocumented persons are seen as somehow less than human, and in which U.S. citizen children are alleged to have fewer rights as the result of their parents’ immigration status.

In the situation of Emily Ruiz, CBP should promptly take steps to investigate the incident that resulted in her removal to Guatemala and should issue clear guidelines to assure that children are protected and that parents are not denied their parental rights.

Leave a Reply