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Ninety-three years ago today women won the right to vote with the certification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Today, women continue to play critical roles in our communities. They are the glue that keeps our families, homes, and communities united while wearing many different hats as breadwinners, leaders, mothers, and caregivers.

Women and children account for 75 percent of the immigrant population. As Congress continues to debate immigration reform, it is critical that women’s voices are heard in the debate and that immigration reform advances women’s equality.

Maria, a mother of three, brought her family to the United States ten years ago in hopes of a better future. She told her story at an event today hosted by the Illinois Women for Compassionate Immigration Reform. “Even with the challenges of being in a different country and with the limitations of being undocumented, we are ok. Only my worries as a mother intensify day by day,” Maria said. Three years ago, Maria’s two teenage sons were detained while traveling on a train. “I berated myself. I felt despicable and like the worst mother for having put them in that situation. It wasn’t their fault. They lived a peaceful life in the United States and didn’t have any criminal record but were treated like it.”

America’s detention and deportation systems disproportionately affect immigrant women and children. Our deportation policy often targets individuals whose only wrongdoing is being out of status and leaves families in financial and emotional turmoil. Men are more likely to be detained and deported than women, which creates single-parent households often led by women. Nationally, children in single-parent households are four times more likely to live in poverty than children in two-parent households. Without the ability to obtain work authorization, only 58 percent of working-age women who are undocumented immigrants are in the labor force, which compounds the difficulty of caring for a family. Families are at a higher risk of falling into poverty following deportation or detention, and more than 400,000 families have been torn apart by deportation in the last year.

Immigration reform can help fix this crisis. First of all, providing a roadmap to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented will give people the opportunity to continue contributing to our economy and our communities. Many would be able to obtain safe and secure employment, and strengthen America’s labor force. In addition, immigration reform should increase use of alternatives to detention (ATDs). At a cost ranging from 30 cents to $14 per day, ATDs would reduce annual immigrant detention costs by 80 percent and save taxpayers $1.44 billion per year. Moreover, ATDs would allow individuals to stay with their families and continue to work while awaiting immigration hearings. Through immigration reform, immigration judges would be able to make individualized assessments that take into consideration family ties and the impact of detention and deportation on families.

All three of Maria's children have received temporary status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. But that is not enough. After what happened to her family, Maria now speaks out for comprehensive immigration reform that keeps families together. “Thank you to all those that support [immigration reform] and believe that those who are undocumented are not a burden to this society,” she said.

Family unity is a primary component of healthy communities. Federal policy should not tear families apart, create single-parent households, or send children into foster care. So today on Women’s Equality Day, we honor the great contributions of women both past and present by calling for comprehensive immigration reform that allows American families to stay together.
 

Sources:
Dreby, J. “How Today’s Immigration Enforcement Policies Impact Children, Families, and Communities.” Center for American Progress, Aug. 2012, http://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/DrebyImmigrationFamiliesFINAL.pdf.

Wessler, Seth Freed. "Shattered Families: The Perilous Intersection of Immigration Enforcement and the Child Welfare System." Applied Research Center, November 2011, http://arc.org/shatteredfamilies.

 

Jennifer Chan is NIJC's associate director of policy.