Children among the millions sent from US to Mexico

Insight

Four million people have been deported in half a decade. That’s how many people the United States has sent out of the country.

Many are Mexican. And some are children, born in the United States.

New estimates suggest well over half a million U.S. born children have been forced to make new lives in a country they’ve never really known.

CCTV America’s Franc Contreras reports.

Children born in the United States are among the 1.4 million people deported back to Mexico by the Obama administration

Many are Mexican families with children who know nothing of Mexico.

Making a new life there means attending Mexican schools. But they do not speak the language. Hundreds of thousands of U.S.-born children still lack proper documents. Many have been kept from entering these schools.

Because they are not Mexican nationals, they are not given access to health care facilities. Advocates for the immigrants said they often slip into the cracks of Mexican society and joining the poor and forgotten.

Sometimes families deported to Mexico include a mother or father from Central America.

With Mexican anti-immigration operations increasing, they have gone from living secretly in the U.S. to moving about in the shadows of Mexican society.

Despite the exclusion they feel each day, some deported families tell CCTV they are grateful they are still together.

According to the most recent census, there are nearly 260,000 U.S. born children with one Mexican parent children, under 17, who have not been registered for Mexican nationality.

A recent change in Mexican law no longer requires transnational families to present certain legal documents, which are difficult and expensive to obtain.

The documents were once seen as a barrier keeping many from getting an education.

Frida Espinoza of Mexico City’s Institute for Women in Migration said many Mexican schools and health clinics still exclude U.S. born children, whose parents were removed from the United States.

The U.S. deported this Mexican woman along with her Guatemalan husband and their U.S. and Guatemalan born children. They live in poverty, yet she still clings to hope.

Observers said growing anti-immigrant sentiment in both the U.S. and Mexico will most likely mean life for them will remain difficult.

Infographic: Deportations from the United States Reached a Record High in 2013 | Statista

Deportations from the United States have gained pace under the Obama administration and 2013 was a record year. All in all, 437,421 people were deported, according to newly released Department of Homeland Security data. That’s over twice as many as ten years ago. Interestingly, 363,000 (83 percent) of the deportations were carried out without appearing before a judge. 198,000 people deported in fiscal year 2013 had criminal convictions compared to 240,000 who did not. Since Obama took office, over 2 million people have been deported from the United States. You will find more statistics at Statista


Washington Correspondent Maria Pena on Mexican children deported from US

So what kind of life awaits someone after being deported and how challenging is a transition to a new country? CCTV America’s Mike Walter spoke to Maria Pena. She’s a Washington Correspondent for the leading Spanish-language daily newspaper in the U.S.