Family Policy Forum

Hinda Winawer

A conversation about the effects of immigration laws can serve as a prototype for examining the direct relationship between public policy and family life as well as the relevant implications of such policy for clinical practice, teaching and research. Following this Forum, AFTA members in attendance expressed interest in learning more about immigration policy. The present
article is a report of highlights from the vast body of information related to immigration policy and is the first of two articles about the relationship of immigration policy to family life. The follow-up article will provide a specific clinical account of the effects of immigration laws on
families.

Dr. Miriam Potocky-Tripodi, Associate Professor, Florida International University was guest speaker at the Forum, moderated by Policy Committee Chair, Ann Hartman. Professor Potocky-Tripodi presented an informative, detailed view of the impact of United States immigration policy on families. In her address, she outlined how legislative acts and their enforcement have created restrictions for immigrant people and have sharply curtailed their access to justice.

As a result of legislation enacted between 1996 and 2000, immigrants' rights have sharply diminished. The rules of the game have essentially been changed after the fact. As a consequence, even though they are now legal aliens, immigrants who might have committed, or who have been accused of committing a minor offense in past years, can be subject to deportation because the crime has now been redefined as an aggravated felony. Furthermore, there can be harsh punishment for minor crimes. The most striking aspect of the new policies is that those accused long after the fact are denied recourse; they cannot have their day in court. Persons so accused may be subject to mandatory detention or deportation. Legal as well as illegal aliens can be classified and detained based on "secret information" and never be advised of the charges brought against them. Some are deported. However, in instances of deportation in which the US does not have diplomatic relations with the country of origin, that country will not accept the accused, who are, instead, imprisoned. Presently, 3,400 people have been jailed for life because their governments would not accept them. The laws, furthermore, are applied differentially depending on U.S. relations with the country of origin. Minor crimes can result in permanent banishment from the U.S., even if other family members are legal aliens or citizens. The emotional, social and economic consequences of such policies on families and children are clearly evident. The new laws have also diminished opportunities for asylum seekers, who are often inhumanely imprisoned alongside convicted criminals, and whose removal from such situations might otherwise have been expedited.

Dr. Potocy-Tripodi provided Forum participants with materials that traced the passage of legislative acts and their direct effects. She also outlined a number of repercussions of the laws for families. The link between policy and family life is striking. The laws have many possible repercussions: families may be kept from reuniting by new arbitrary income requirements; tax-paying legal immigrants who unexpectedly fall on hard times find they are not eligible for the same safety-net benefits as other taxpaying Americans; legal immigrants who had a minor brush with the law decades ago are being locked up and deported, their families torn apart; immigrants mistreated by the government may have no legal recourse, because the courts have been stripped of their power to review most immigration matters. The economic and social consequences of the policy restrictions for immigrant children, when compared to the national population, include a higher percentage of children in poverty, a greater proportion experiencing hunger, crowded living conditions, lack of health insurance and poor access to health care. Immigrant children are more than twice as likely as native children to be in poor health.

AFTA members and guests in attendance at the Forum expressed an interest in continuing discussion of injustices experienced by immigrant families. Attendees recommended that the policy committee continue to focus its attention on immigration issues and bring the conversation to the AFTA membership at large. As individuals, and as an organization, we can become better informed in order to consider a proactive stance with regard to the issue of immigration policy and its relevance to the quality of life for families and children.

For further information, please contact the following organizational resources:
National Immigration Forum—www.immigrationforum.org
American Civil Liberties Union—www.aclu.org/issues/immigrant/hmir.html
American Immigration Lawyers Association—www.aila.org

For legislative alerts and fact sheets pertaining to asylum and refugee policy, contact the Lawyers committee for Human Rights, at www.lchr.org/home.html

Hinda Winawer, member of the AFTA Board of Directors and newly designated Chair of the Policy Committee, is a faculty member of the Ackerman Institute for the Family, in New York, and of the Center for Family Community and Social Justice at Princeton Family Institute.