ABSTRACT
The United States Constitution protects parental rights and the right to family life. Statutes and cases use the best interest of the child standard in decision-making about children. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) requires state parties to protect family unity, to use the best interest standard and to hear and weigh the voice of the child in decisions concerning custody. Article 2 prohibits states from discriminating against a child based on the parent’s status.
Current immigration law and enforcement-only policies discriminate against citizen children based on their parents’ unauthorized status, violating the child’s right to a family under both the Constitution and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Enforcement-only policies unnecessarily separate, sometimes permanently, otherwise fit-but-for-status parents from their citizen children without due process of law. Immigration proceedings often result in citizen children being placed in foster care. The United States should ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, revise immigration law to include considerations of family unity and add a best interest of the child standard into removal considerations.
