Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on America’s Children
detainees of their right to counsel and to home country consular officials.* All arrested immigrants should be given lists of pro bono attorneys and other legal resources. Those charged with nonimmigration offenses should be notified of their rights and given access to legal representation. ■
ICE should allow arrestees access to telephones within a short time after arrest, and ensure confidentiality of telephone conversations. ICE should also take into consideration whether or not arrestees have children and whether or not arrestees have strong community connections when determining the location of their detention.
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ICE should develop a consistent policy for release of parents arrested in enforcement operations. Single parents and primary caregivers of young children should be released early enough in the day so that school children and children in child care do not experience disruptions in care; they should not be held overnight. Parents should be released quickly even when there are two parents in the home because the second parent often cannot function alone.
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ICE and the immigration court system should allow for a speedy resolution of arrested immigrants’ disposition, to allow families to make final decisions concerning the care and well-being of their children.
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ICE should notify community institutions as soon as possible after enforcement operations so that the institutions can prepare responses, and should provide information on arrested immigrants – including the location of their detention – to these institutions in a timely fashion.
RECOMMENDATIONS ■
FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Schools should develop systems to help ensure that children have a safe place to go in the event of a raid, and to reduce the risk that children will be left without adult supervision when the school day ends.
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Children may need academic and other counseling for an extended period of time following a raid, just as they would after any other major disruptive event.
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Schools, churches, and other community institutions should have forums to discuss the aftermath of the raids and to reduce community fears and tensions. Ongoing work to help heal communities and bridge immigrant with nonimmigrant communities may be necessary to reduce these fears and tensions.
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Article 36(1)(b) of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (United Nations, Treaty Series, Vol. 596, 1963, p. 261) provides that if a person detained by a foreign country “so requests, the competent authorities of the receiving state shall, without delay, inform the consular post of the sending state” of such detention and “inform the person concerned without delay of his rights” to consular representation. Available at http://untreaty.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/conventions/9_2_1963.pdf. NCLR ◆ Page 70