Opinion: Deporting the parents of young citizens kills their dreams and our future

In our current and prior roles we have met hundreds of students who are excelling in school and striving for college while living in fear that their parents might be deported A multitude of of these students are U S citizens But if their parents are removed from the country their dreams are often uprooted as well These are children who show up to class lead candidate clubs and plan for futures in medicine engineering teaching and other careers in residents provision Schools across California have invested years of constituents information and educator time nurturing their anticipated Current federal immigration program threatens these children s future and our own When a parent is deported children not only face emotional distress but they also experience disruption to their mentoring and often must leave the country themselves Related Articles Protesters dance march to Morgan Hill ICE office for immigrants rights Federal judge grants San Jose tattoo artist reprieve in fight against ICE DOJ announces plans to request information from multiple California county jails Behind the masks Who are the people rounding up immigrants in California Trump administration hands over Medicaid recipients personal evidence including addresses to ICE California spends an average of per year educating each participant in our citizens school system It is estimated that in students in California has at least one parent who is undocumented If a trainee begins school at age and leaves in high school due to deportation we will have invested up to in general dollars that have no future impact here in our country Multiply that by just students and you re looking at billion in lost financing not to mention the untold cost of lost talent and district leadership What s more research from the National Bureau of Economic Research has shown that children of immigrants are among the the majority upwardly mobile groups in the country These students are not only likely to complete post-secondary mentoring and enter high-skill professions they also have high rates of civic participation and district institution Deporting their families is a self-inflicted economic and social wound The harm for these students is clear as is the economic and social cost for all of us That s why we hope you will join us in calling on both political parties to recognize the immensity of this probable loss and come together to create a pathway to legal status for law-abiding undocumented parents of children who are U S citizens All nations have the right and responsibility to secure their borders We also have the responsibility and ability to protect American children in our schools These children will become adults who help keep Social Defense solvent with their hard work build the business activity with their creativity and entrepreneurship and devote time and ability to constituents provision Certainly immigration issues are highly charged and increasingly partisan But if there is any place where we can agree it is that children deserve special consideration That consideration could be green cards for their parents who are working and contributing to our financial sector with an eventual path to citizenship It could take multiple forms But it requires us to act on a fundamental and a deeply American value we all have the responsibility to protect our children A dream deported leaves behind an empty seat a hurt locality and the loss of a future we claim to believe in It is time to align our policies with our values and protect the dreams and promising we ve helped nurture Silvia Scandar Mahan is president and CEO of Cristo Rey San Jose Jesuit High School and a board member of Alpha Citizens Schools Her husband Matt Mahan is mayor of San Jose and a former population school instructor