Increases In Deportation Leads To Increase In Legal Action Plans

This blog has reported stories regarding the increase in deportation efforts and goals that immigration officials have set for 2011. Many undocumented immigrants have grown nervous about the increased enforcement and have decided to draft legal documents that spell out what should happen to their families and assets should they be deported.

Florida deportation defense attorneys are aware that many children of undocumented workers can be stranded at school when parents are arrested at work. Immigrant families in Arizona reportedly began creating informal plans back in 2006, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were raiding work sites to round up undocumented workers, according to Cecelia Menjivar, a professor of sociology at Arizona State University.

Menjivar says that as ICE increased raids, many families created informal emergency plans because spouses of workers did not always have access to the worker’s bank accounts. Undocumented foreign nationals with children would make informal arrangements for care of their children should they be caught up in an ICE raid.

Now many immigration attorneys and estate planning attorneys reportedly are seeing an increase in requests for legal actions plans. Congressional failure to act on immigration reform in 2010 is cited as one factor in the increase in requests for action plans, according to many experts. Increases in deportations also factors in to the increase in formal legal action plans.

Arizona’s immigration law has caused fears in many in that state, though the law is embroiled in court proceedings. Other states, including Florida are considering similar anti-immigration laws.

For many, a notarized letter may suffice as an action plan. Many plans designate who is responsible for children should an undocumented parent be subject to deportation. One 24-year-old woman, who is pregnant, has had documents drawn up to ensure her partner, a legal resident, gets custody of her child should she be deported. The woman does not want to see her child enter the foster care system.

Source: USA Today, “Deportation fears fuel action plans,” Alan Gomez