What happens to undocumented children when their parents are detained?

Here’s the story of 4 year-old Carlos Jamison Moser, one many undocumented children separated from their parents.

In May 2007, federal immigration agents raided the poultry processing plant where Encarnacion Bail Romero was working.  Rather than removing her back to Guatemala the government charged her with aggravated identity fraud for working under a stolen Social Security number and imprisoned her.   While in prison Bail Romero’s brother and sister cared for her infant son Carlos.  Eventually they sought help from a clergy couple who offered baby-sitting services.  The clergy couple asked to adopt the boy, but Bail Romero said no.  The clergy couple then introduced the boy to the Mosers and eventually put the boy up for adoption.

The Mosers asked a judge for temporary custody.  After a judge granted the Mosers temporary custody, they waited a year, more than the six-month minimum stipulated by Missouri law, before asking the court’s permission to adopt the boy.  In October 2008, a judge approved the adoption, ruling that Bail Romero had abandoned her child by not trying to contact the Mosers for a year.  After the adoption the Mosers legally changed the boy’s name to Carlos Jamison Moser.

In February 2009, Bail Romero was released from prison and started fighting to re-gain custody. An appeals court sided with her in July, concluding the adoption was invalid. The Missouri Supreme Court heard arguments in this case in November and could makes its decision any day.

The federal government plans to remove Bail Romero back to Guatemala, where her two other children live, however her removal has been stayed until the courts resolve the question of her son’s custody.

University of South Carolina law professor, Marcia Zug, estimates there may be hundreds or thousands of cases in the United States where immigrant children are taken from their biological parents.  She adds because records of many similar cases are sealed, and many immigrants cannot afford to hire lawyers, this case is likely the tip of the iceberg.

For the full story: Heart-wrenching Fight for Immigrant’s Son

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