What happens to families torn apart by the US's broken immigration system

"The Deported: America's Immigration Battle", 2014
This year it is expected that the number of immigrants deported under US President Barack Obama will likely surpass two million, more than the total number of deportations prior to 1997. This will result in more families being divided, with many who have lived for decades in the US forced to return to a homeland they barely recognise. Meanwhile in the halls of Congress, the immigration reform debate is still at a standstill, and a civil disobedience movement has spread across the country pushing for Obama to halt deportations until reform passes. Josh Rushing looks beneath the political rhetoric to examine the impact of a broken immigration system on immigrant families.

To think that the state could actively separate families, actively take away the parents of US citizen children, I think we’re going to look back on this time and probably be disgusted.

Daniel Martinez, George Washington University
Listen Fault Lines' Paul Abowd and Josh Rushing Talk Deportation
Read International Women's Media Foundation's Born in a cell: The families stranded at the US border
Referenced in Neoliberalism with a Human Face? Critical Perspectives on Hollywood Science Fiction by Stephen Trinder
Mathieu Skene, executive producer | Reem Akkad, senior producer | Paul Abowd and Elizabeth Gorman, producers | Victor Suarez, director of photography | Jennifer Beman, editor | Josh Rushing, correspondent | Abdulai Bah, associate producer | Paul Abowd and Joel Van Haren, additional photography | Michelle Koepp, Zahra Rasool, Mark Scialla, Nafeesa Syeed, Sergio Ceballos and Murphy Woodhouse, production assistance and translation | Shannon Stanley, production coordinator
deported-americas-immigration-battle Jose was deported hours earlier to the country of his birth for the first time in 31 years after a sheriff asked to see his papers while he was riding his bike in Phoenix, Arizona two days earlier. He had yet to tell his family. San Juan Bosco Shelter, Nogales, Mexico, January 8, 2014.
deported-americas-immigration-battle Dozens of men bed down in the San Juan Bosco Shelter every evening after being deported — it has taken in nearly one million deportees since it opened in 1982, Nogales, Mexico, January 8, 2014.
deported-americas-immigration-battle The chapel at San Juan Bosco fills every evening with people recently deported from the United States, Nogales, Mexico, January 8, 2014.
deported-americas-immigration-battle Men just deported from the US eat an evening meal at the San Juan Bosco shelter in Nogales, Mexico, January 8, 2014.
deported-americas-immigration-battle Prayer beads left by deportees around the neck of a crucified Jesus in the chapel at the San Juan Bosco shelter in Nogales, Mexico, January 8, 2014.
deported-americas-immigration-battle Mementos and offerings left on the alter of San Juan Bosco, Nogales, Mexico, January 8, 2014.
deported-americas-immigration-battle Victor Suarez filming on the Canon C300, Nogales, Mexico, January 8, 2014.
deported-americas-immigration-battle Members of the NOT1MORE campaign, chained with bicycle u-locks around their necks to the exit gate, blockade ICE headquarters to protest the rate of deportations, roughly 1,100 a day, while the debate over comprehensive immigration reform drags on in Congress, Atlanta, Georgia, January 8, 2014.
deported-americas-immigration-battle Members of the NOT1MORE campaign, chained with bicycle u-locks around their necks to the exit gate, blockade ICE headquarters to protest the rate of deportations, roughly 1,100 a day, while the debate over comprehensive immigration reform drags on in Congress, Atlanta, Georgia, January 8, 2014.
deported-americas-immigration-battle Homeland Security Police drag away a NOT1MORE protester, ICE Headquarters Atlanta, Georgia, November 19, 2013.
deported-americas-immigration-battle Members of the NOT1MORE campaign, chained with bicycle u-locks around their necks to the exit gate, blockade ICE headquarters to protest the rate of deportations, roughly 1,100 a day, while the debate over comprehensive immigration reform drags on in Congress, Atlanta, Georgia, January 8, 2014.
deported-americas-immigration-battle Several hundred immigration protesters marched to the ICE field office in New Orleans, Louisianna, November 14, 2013.
deported-americas-immigration-battle Immigration protesters occupied the intersection of Poydras Street and Loyola Avenue in downtown for three hours during rush-hour traffic, New Orleans, Lousianna, November 14, 2013.
deported-americas-immigration-battle Immigration protesters stop traffic by laying in the street, New Orleans, Louisianna, November 14, 2013.
deported-americas-immigration-battle Immigration rally protester art — paper mache alien in the background represents the director of the local ICE field office, Trey Lund. New Orleans, Louisianna, November 14, 2013.
deported-americas-immigration-battle Anderson Suarez protests at an immigration rally in New Orleans, Louisianna, November 14, 2013.
deported-americas-immigration-battle Protesters at an immigration rally told me they were welcome after Katrina to come do the dirty work of reconstruction, but now that the city is recovering they felt they were being cast aside like trash. New Orleans, Louisianna, November 14, 2013.
deported-americas-immigration-battle While most of New Orleans has recovered from the catastrophe of Katrina, the city is still pockmarked with scarred neighborhoods and homes. The X marked to the left of the door signifies that a recovery team cleared the structure on September 20, 2005, about three weeks after the levees broke. The zero in the bottom quadrant signifies that no victims were found inside. New Orleans, Louisianna, November 14, 2013.