And family court is not a bureaucracy why . . . . . . . ?

that IS the family court way — take the kids, guilty til proven innocent, — and we just happen to have some parenting classes here (see Access/Visitation grants?) — and by the way, we have no clear definition of what “fit parent” is so you’ll never meet the qualifications until we’re satisfied neither you nor your relatives can afford any more payola.

In May 2011, the Bacon Program, in partnership with the Southwest Institute for Research on Women, published “Disappearing Parents: A Report on Immigration Enforcement and the Child Welfare System.” The report describes families entangled in two vast bureaucracies: the federal immigration enforcement system and the state child welfare system.

http://www.law.arizona.edu/depts/bacon_program/child_welfare.cfm

. . .

“Disappearing Parents” is based on over a year of research, including over fifty surveys and twenty interviews with juvenile court judges, attorneys representing children and parents in juvenile court, and case workers in Child Protective Services.

Unable to interview the parents or children directly?

CPS has a reputation of trafficking children of two US-born parents, I can’t imagine the fearsome power they have when one, or the other, is not a legal citizen!

This article’s lead story says it is Amelia’s story (given the description on the link), although pseudonym on the report is “Laura.”  from this –and the description of the situation which got her detained and regarding the oldest son — is not the same.  “Laura” had a 10 year, violent marriage, and her ex was departed.  Thereafter, her oldest, a 16 yr old (not 13 yr old) threw a party serving alcohol in the home without her permission, which was how ICE got involved.  One might add that it’s unlikely there was a child support order in that case, with a deported international, and likely that Laura was not in the home in the process of fulfilling some responsibility, like maybe working at night, I do not know.

Methodology

In the summer of 2010, SIROW {{the institute}} conducted surveys and interviews with personnel in the Pima County Juvenile Court system. As a county on which to focus, Pima County has several distinguishing features. First, it is a border county, with a 120 mile long border along the southern and central region of Arizona. Second, it contains Tucson, the second largest city in the state. Pima County has a population of roughly one million.

In 2009, the Juvenile Court reported that it had 1,744 open dependency cases and 3,104 dependent children. Finally, Pima County is a “model court.” The Model Courts consist of 25 juvenile and family courts nationwide that work with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and use a best-practices bench book as a guide to systems reform.

In the report, attorneys, judges, and caseworkers in the child welfare system describe widespread confusion about how to contact parents once they are picked up by immigration enforcement. . .

That is all I have for this story today, except to note that the report says, parents in detention are nearly impossible to reach.  What, really, is happening here — are we allowing immigrants to come in work (do laundry, lawns, etc.) give birth — and then calling in the good, keeping the kids, sticking them into foster care and throwing out the mothers, and/or Dads — something our courts are GREAT and practiced at doing over substantial or insubstantial or NO reason anyhow — and then what happens to these children?

“SIRoW” is not a corporation, but is under part of the university of Arizona:

http://sirow.arizona.edu/

The “institute” in this case has no corporate identity (I just looked) and is part of a university.  The list of keywords doesn’t include “family” or “violence” or such things.

I am very concerned about this information — deport the parents, keep the kids.  Particularly when they are young girls.   I am also curious about what a “model court” is per NCJFCJ (Pima County) and what happened in this particular case.  I will hear the video later — and remembrer, we are assured this is a typical case.  How many children — REALLY — if you consider those removed from intact families, those removed from first one parent, then the other, and those involving a foreign-born but not legal in US parent — end up in the foster care system, and why DO they?  I know mine almost did, and if I’d been a vengeful parent, when their Dad “extracted” them based on false allegations (which I don’t even know if the children, then minors, knew about), unsupported, and with a family court judge in apparent consent with law enforcement, simply dumped back into the courts — there was an attempt made to put them into the system.  At that time, I had employment, home, and an unblemished record.  My record is still legally unblemished, except for this nightmare, and when our judge was in writing requested to give a factual and legal basis (the court is REQUIRED to) for this abrupt custody switch, we got none.  Nada, zero, zilch.   by the time we went to trial, I’d lost my attorney, had been further stalked and threatened by the father, court orders were a “moot point” (not about to be obeyed), I was in clean up mode, had lost my stellar set of employment opportunities, except the last strand, which we had prior to the snatch — child support of course was immediately terminated (current payments), arrears completely on hold for the duration of custody (if they collected from him — unlikely — they earned interest for quite a while) – – – – and then when I STILL tried to get the original questions answered in court, finally — i.e., what’s the factual and legal basis — the judge did not allow me to cross-examine my husband, but did it herself.

I’m sure (s/he) was AFCC.  A GAL was involved too, unnecessarily (my kids had mouths, they can talk!) which ow reminds me of the Lackawanna Situation with Ms. Danielle M. Ross and her being hired by a judge, by court order.  I’ll have to look into who hired the one on our case.

So, in our case, the foster care system did NOT get a child.  They better not have billed anyone for ours after Dad abandoned them (which he quickly did, after this astounding “win”).  I wonder who dealt with whom in that matter, and am still finding out.  but I remain a U.S. Citizen, for what that’s still worth to females and mothers any more.

TAGGS grants from HHS/ACF to PIMA COUNTY (all, Awards By Location & Agency):

Scanning some of these (I selected grants to “County”) I see two categories going to PIMA county — this is a fragment only, but only two awards 0for substance abuse / pregmant women and (as we see) juvenile court family drug court (expansion):

Here’s a sample of grants available in AZ in 2008 (I picked some random CFDA categories, including (for comparison) promotion of abstinence and marriage/fatherhood, infant and other adoption assistance, foster care incentives, and things such as “unaccompanied children of aliens” (which ms. Reyes-Jiminez children became, somewhere inbetween the time they handcuffed her and the time the kids went to foster care), and so forth.  One would think that some of these might’ve helped.  Again, where was that Dad, or did he also get deported — and was the father of the disabled 13 year old son a U.S. Citizen?

I realize this will bleed past the right margin here, but eventually this will be into blank space, and not links or blogrolls on the website here.  Just for comparison, you can see some are PIMA county, others Maricopa, etc.

Results 1 to 188 of 188 matches. (2008 = partial only)
Page 1 of 1	1

In PIMA COUNTY (where this was), I notice the Arizona Children’s Association’s focus has been on infant adoption (PIMA being a border county with Mexico):

Showing: 1 – 34 of 34 Award (the total of $9 million is all years — under these CFDA’s I selected).  Organization total from TAGGS (using the DUNS#) is the same amount:

More, on this group:

http://www.azcvs.net/pdf/countys/PIMA%20COUNTY.pdf

This org started as an orphanage in 1912:

With more than 40 programs and services across every county in the state, Arizona’s Children Association’s Prevention, Intervention andPermanency programs can mean the difference between a hope-filled future and a life of despair for many Arizona children and families.  We believe that every child deserves a permanent home that is safe and nurturing and we strive toward that goal.  Annually, Arizona’s Children Association serves more than 45,000 children and their families across all 15 counties in Arizona (see map).

We are one of the largest non-profit agencies in the state to offer foster care, adoption, behavioral health,prevention programs, and other child welfare services — thanks to your contributions, we’ve been positively affecting the lives of Arizona’s children for nearly 100 years.

__

Partners include many foundations (including Casey Family Programs) & some “Public Partners” at the bottom of the page

Other Public Partners

Arizona Criminal Justice Commission

City of Glendale-CDBG

City of Phoenix

Fort Yuma Rotary Club

Lake Havasu Rotary Club

Pima County Attorney’s Office

Pima County Community Development

– – – – Googling this mother’s name, it is being reported:

“LOST IN THE SYSTEM” from http://haleybehre.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/lost-in-the-system-children-of-undocumented-immigrants-in-foster-system/

. . . (after repeating outline of story, omitting the details about father going out with older daughters) . . . .

Yes, she is an undocumented immigrant, and I understand that Americans frown on this. But really, you are separating a family and causing unperceived harm to the children’s psyches. You are tearing apart a family and making these children just another number in the system. Is it really worth it?

According to the article, in 2010, the ICE released a memo saying that immigration officers are encouraged to consider family relationships when deciding to prosecute a deportation case.

The “ICE Spokesman Brian Hale said that, ‘…ICE will typically not detain individuals who are the primary caretakers of children…”

But how does that help those who were detained prior to 2010? What about Jiminez’s family? This does not help them. She is still fighting for her right to be a parent to her OWN children. Her children are still in the system, parentless.

~ ~ ~

The reporter is also a hopeful journalist who has lived in several countries:

About Haley Behre

I graduated from Syracuse University in December 2011 with majors in newspaper journalism and women and gender studies. Using these majors, I aspire to become a journalist who writes about human rights issues. I have held internships at the Syracuse New Times, Dash Media PR Firm, Syracuse Post-Standard and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. I also had an internship at the Not For Sale Campaign Syracuse chapter, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to eradicating human trafficking. I was born in Seoul, Korea on September 30, 1990 and moved to the United States before I was one year old. When I was 8, my family and I moved to Norwich, England for three years. While I was here I was immersed into a new culture and got to experience many things other children my age do not get to. Over the three years, I visited Ireland, France and the Netherlands several times, and Belgium, Wales and Sweden once. In the winter of 2010, I got an amazing opportunity to visit Kenya for a month. This was by far the single most eye-opening experience of my life thus far. The natural beauty of the landscape and its people do not compare to anything I have seen. I currently intern for the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press in the hopes of getting a full-time job at a newspaper or non-profit after.

She is young and does not sound familiar with the US court system, yet . . . .

Here (docstoc) if you expand the print, someone of this name, age 35, was arrested on a “courtesy hold” (but the date is 9/11/2009):

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/71143225/OFF-dui-phoenix-arizona  this is Apache Junction, Pima County Sheriff’s.  On the same page, we notice a sweep of some sort, “SWAT.”

From TARA O. Blog, today– a nice photo:

http://ohaniataaa.blogspot.com/2012/02/5-news-log-immigration.html

The issues on illegal immigration have recently been increasing in the US.  Like many other illegal immigrants, Amelia Reyes Jimenez was deported for immigration violations.  Giving birth to 4 children in America, she was heartbroken when she found out that her children would be taken away from her and sent to foster care.  Each year thousands of children are separated from their undocumented immigrant parents.  The kids wind up in foster care and eventually may even be adopted by US citizens, while their parents are either deported or held in federal detention centers.  Due to her unlawful actions, Jimenez has lost parental rights by an Arizona judge.

That is not Dad?  Nor does this article mention:

Illegal immigration is a very touchy topic for many people.  I feel that most immigrants don’t realize the consequences of their actions when they come to America illegally.  I understand that they want the best for themselves and their unborn children, however America is not always the answer.  There are so many immigrants found in America today that do not have the opportunities that they believe they would have once they reach the country.  I think they would live better lives if they continued to live in their homelands rather than here.

 

There are questions pending on this particular story.  I hope the investigative journalists finish their job and tell the truth about this case, whatever part it plays into their agenda in drawing attention to the issues.   WHen push comes to shove it was an Arizona JUDGE that terminated parental rights.

Something doesn’t add all the way up, but my point is to point out how easy it is to fill up the foster care system.

 

I also remember that Arizona is a state that tried to privatize its prison industry, and I blogged this, following some other investigative journalists’ excellent work.  Corrections Corporation of America.

 

 

 

Keep this on on your radar — the extent of the problem is a concern, as well as the nature.  I should write the Carnegie Fellow Authors, after some more fact-checking. . . .