ABSTRACT
Family relationships, in particular the parent-child relationship, play a prominent role in the structuring of immigration and nationality law. Immigration and citizenship provisions generally promote keeping children and parents together. Because the application of immigration and nationality laws mimics the results achieved by constitutional protections of the rights of children and parents in family integrity, it is easy to assume that these protections of family integrity are at work in shaping immigration and citizenship frameworks. The role of family is critical in shaping who qualifies to immigrate to the United States, when a person faces removal from the United States it is as an individual, not as a family unit. The deportation of parents, therefore, is a common avenue by which parent's immigration status loses alignment with that of their children. Removal proceedings may result in an order of deportation against a parent that does absolutely nothing to affect directly the immigration status of a child or other family members.
