Immigration and Orphans

Today is Orphan Sunday, a day marked for raising awareness of orphans and opportunities to care for them throughout U.S. churches. A video our church played today said that there are almost 500,000 children in foster care in the United States.

According to an Applied Research Center report published last year, at least 5100 — more than 1% — of those children are the children of detained or deported immigrants.

U.S. immigration policy and enforcement have needlessly orphaned over 5000 children, taken them from their parents, and placed them in foster care.

Among those children are the children of Felipe Montes. Felipe is marred to a U.S. citizen, and thus qualifies for a visa, but the costs, both in application fees, travel, and lost work, are prohibitive. His wife is disabled, so he was both the breadwinner and primary caregiver for his family. He has now been deported. So far, the courts have determined that his wife is not capable of caring for the children, and gaining custody so he can take them to Mexico so they can live with their father is an uphill battle. Felipe has been deported, his wife is in prison, and his sons are in foster homes. One family, blown to as many bits as possible, in the name of “justice”.

Immigration matters because, among other reasons, orphans matter.