From CNN comes the heartbreaking story of 13 year old, Julie Quiroz. Julie is a legal natural born U.S. citizen, but she was born to a mother who was in the country illegally. After ICE caught up with the family and deported Julie’s mother and two brothers, Julie wound up in Texas with a foster family and Julie’s family wound up in Mexico.

Julie’s plight highlights what happens to a whole slew of not just immigrant families and their children, but also U.S. citizens who are parents and must serve jail time. Children are often left at home alone after the arrest of their parent, and many times, police and social workers make no effort to find a child of an arrested parent, even if the parent tells officials of the child. I’ve heard stories of children living on their own for up to two months before concerned neighbors finally step in and call social services or invite them into their own homes.

I feel the same way about ICE enforced family separations as I do about prison enforced family separations. It is a human right to see your child, regardless of crime committed or nationality. I don’t care how complicated it is to negotiate the right for children and parents to be together, it must be done. And if our legal system can’t find ways to make it so that children and parents are together or at least have regular access to each other, than that system needs to change. Period.

via/CNN