Alexis' father, Rony Molina, who runs a small landscaping company, was born in Guatemala but has lived here for 12 years and is an American citizen. Alexis and his 8-year-old brother, Steve, are Americans, too. So is their 19-year-old stepsister, Evelin. But their mother, Sandra, who lived here illegally, was deported to Guatemala a year and a half ago.
"How can my country not allow a mother to be with her children, especially when they are so young and they need her," Rony Molina asks, "and especially when they are Americans?"
It's a question thousands of other families are wrestling with as a record number of deportations means record numbers of American children being left without a parent. And it comes despite President Barack Obama's promise that his administration would focus on removing only criminals, not breaking up families even if a parent is here illegally.
Nearly 45,000 such parents were removed in the first six months of this year, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).



A spike in Israeli military raids and settler violence across the occupied West Bank is driving...
The US Department of Justice has moved to eliminate rules protecting LGBTQ+ people from sexual abuse...
A US senator has condemned the Trump administration after she alleged that an Immigration and Customs...
Arafat Qaddous worked construction jobs in Israel.He was one of around 130,000 Palestinians living in the...





























