MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
More than 4 million children in the U.S. live in mixed-status families, meaning some family members are in the country illegally, others have legal status or even U.S. citizenship. As the Trump administration continues its campaign of mass deportations, many of those families are scrambling to figure out emergency plans like what happens to children who are U.S. citizens if their parents are deported. NPR's Jasmine Garsd has the story.
JASMINE GARSD, BYLINE: A father in Washington, D.C., says he's been in the U.S. for 25 years. He spent the last month or so hiding.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: "We're not even going to work right now," he says. There's been a heavy ICE presence in D.C. for the last month or so and checkpoints on both sides of his street. The entire family has asked that we withhold their names because he and his wife are undocumented, originally from Honduras.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: "Our neighborhood is surrounded," he says. You might pass ICE once, but twice, the only person who goes in and out of the house is their 17-year-old son. He's their only child. He was born in the U.S. He's a citizen. He's a senior in high school. They recently sat him down and asked, if we get deported, what do you want to do?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: "I don't even know Honduras," the son told them, "I've never been." And then he mentioned his best friend, who the family has known since the boys were in pre-K together. We need to ask them for help, the son said.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: These are, in fact, straight from the box.
GARSD: On the other side of town in an upper-middle-class Washington, D.C., neighborhood, a mom serves fresh-baked cookies and milk. She, too, asked that her name be withheld. She's a U.S. citizen but doesn't want to call attention to the Honduran family. She says when her friends, the Honduran parents, reached out, she wasn't shocked.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: You know, I'm not going to lie. Like, I had inklings of what it might be about.
GARSD: When the families met, the Honduran dad laid it out. We could get detained. If we do, would you be the temporary guardians of our son?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: "Don't feel pressured," he told them. We understand this is an enormous request. We are putting our son's life in your hands. He's 17. He needs to finish high school, and we want him to go to college. He's going to need guidance.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: My husband and I just looked at each other, and we were like, yes, of course, right? Like, not a question, not a moment's hesitation. It's not something we entered into lightly. At the same time, like, we love them.
GARSD: During his first term in office, President Trump took major criticism for separating immigrant families. During this term, government officials have said having an American citizen child does not protect undocumented immigrants from deportation. It's not clear how many immigrant families have arranged emergency guardianship for their children, but lawyers NPR spoke to say they've been seeing a big increase in recent months.
GINGER MIRANDA: So what we're advising is to be prepared.
GARSD: This is Ginger Miranda, president of the Central Florida Hispanic Bar Association. The group is holding lots of emergency guardianship and power of attorney classes across the state. They recommend people don't make verbal or other informal agreements. Make concrete plans, she says, through a lawyer.
MIRANDA: Remember, if a parent is detained, those children are left vulnerable. Sometimes they're left at school, no one's there to pick them up. And without the proper legal documents in place, the children can end up in foster care.
GARSD: Which is exactly the scenario the Honduran family is afraid of, their son ending up in foster care. So they all went and signed the paperwork to give the U.S. citizen family emergency guardianship. The American mom says she's told no one. She does not want to put the Honduran family at risk.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: My mom does not know. My husband's mother does not know.
GARSD: She says the possibility that this kid could be left without his parents, and she might have to step in, weighs on her every day.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Just as an American, I am deeply sad and sorry that this is a conversation that we even need to have. And yet, I really do hold out hope for the possibility that in the long run, it does serve to bring people closer together.
GARSD: The Honduran dad says he's grateful beyond words for their help. He's relieved his son will be safe if it comes to that.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: "But to abandon my child in another country, do you think that was my plan? Who would want this?" he says. "Nobody."
Jasmine Garsd, NPR News, Washington, D.C. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
