GRAND ISLAND, Neb.
Amid thousands of children around the country distraught over a parent arrested in immigration raids, federal officials, school officials and advocates for immigrants argued over who was to blame for leading kids to post-traumatic stress disorder, separation anxiety and depression, as a study released last Wednesday found.
The study by the Urban Institute blamed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, recommending congressional oversight over the agency’s workplace operations and calling for clear guidelines for releasing arrested parents to minimize harm to their kids.
But a spokesman for ICE said it’s not the agency’s fault that kids’ lives are disrupted.
“This report takes the bizarre position that ICE is somehow responsible for family disruption caused by parents who make poor decisions,” ICE spokesman Tim Counts said. “Law enforcement agencies across the nation arrest people who have children every day. Everyone understands that parents are responsible for their actions and the resulting impact on their families.”
But in Grand Island, the site of a meatpacking plant raid last year, local officials and community members repeatedly said Wednesday that the fallout children experience affects the whole community.
“It’s hundreds of students, not one. You can prepare in a situation, and we have systems set up to respond to a single family situation,” said Kerri Nazarenus, an administrator with Grand Island Public Schools.
