PHOTOS: Orphaned by Deportation Gathering in Portland

Portland, Ore.--Yesterday, Causa Oregon hosted a gathering in Portland of American children left orphaned by our broken immigration system. During the event, stories were shared by U.S. citizen children, spouses and parents whose loved ones have been deported or detained. Information was also shared about the destructive social and economic consequences of enforcement-only immigration policy has on families.

The U.S. has deported 46,000 Parents with Citizen Kids in Just Six Months. The rising number of parental deportations has corresponded with an overall increase in immigration enforcement under the Obama administration; in fiscal year 2011, a record 397,000 people were deported.

New data, released to the Applied Research Center in September, reveals that more than 22 percent of all people deported in the first half of this year were parents of citizen kids. If rates of parental deportation remain steady in the year to come, The number of children of non-citizens placed in the U.S. child welfare system will no doubt rise.

Read more here: Thousands of Kids Lost from Parents in U.S. Deportation System http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/11/thousands_of_kids_lost_in_foster_homes_after_parents_deportation.html