Immigration Crackdown: Life after deportation: Young citizens left behind when Mom and Dad leave country

Life after deportation: Young citizens left behind when Mom and Dad leave country - Chicago Tribune: "In the two years since her father was deported, 13-year-old Elisabeth and her three younger siblings have settled into an after-school routine while their mother, Maria Lourdes, works long hours at a beauty salon.

The family shares a cramped bedroom in a Waukegan apartment. When school friends wonder why her father is no longer in the picture, Elisabeth has learned to change the subject.

'I don't answer,' she said. 'It's such a long story.'

After Elisabeth's father was deported, the family moved briefly to Mexico. But domestic discord led Maria Lourdes to return to Waukegan with her children, who were born here and are U.S. citizens. She, like her husband, is undocumented, but has applied for a visa to remain in the country. ...

Those who work with such children say they've seen an increase in the cases locally. As a result, churches, schools and advocacy groups are left scrambling to help once-stable households deal with poverty, foreclosures, academic failure and other problems that come when so-called mixed immigration status families are split up.

The separation creates an "angry generation" of children who feel traumatized and disaffected but still choose to stay in the U.S. rather than face potential poverty, violence, and cultural and language barriers abroad. For some, advocates say, life in America is all they know.

"It's a horrific situation," said Josh Hoyt, director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. "Given that we have this vastly increased number of deportations … we're trying to create infrastructure or support, specifically for people that have done nothing criminal other than come here to work, many who have U.S. citizen children.""