'Sanctuary Families' to Help Parents Facing Deportation

As arrests of undocumented immigrants rise in New York City, many parents without legal status are worried about what would happen to their children if they are detained or deported. 

"Parents are afraid they’ll go out to buy groceries and they’ll somehow be detained on the street and not be able to come home," said Julia Jean-Francois, co-director of the Center for Family Life, a social service nonprofit in Sunset Park.

In response to these concerns, the center is holding "Parents' Rights" workshops and helping families designate friends or relatives as guardians in case parents are detained. 

The center is also trying something new: training strangers who are willing to care for the children of neighbors facing deportation. Organizers call the program "Sanctuary Families."

Park Slope resident Liz Jones is taking the training. She said she's not 100 percent sure her family is ready for a new member, but she wants to show support for undocumented families who live close by. And just in case, she says she wants to be prepared to step up.

"The bottom line is, if there are dozens of children in Sunset Park who suddenly had nowhere to go and I had space, how could I not do this?" she said.

The program is still in its early stages. Only two people have signed up for the trainings so far, and organizers are still figuring out how it would actually work. The classes are similar to those required for prospective foster parents, although the goal is to keep children out of the formal foster system. Instead, social workers at the Center are inviting families to fill out state forms that allow caregivers to make important decisions without taking away parental rights.

Jean-Francois says the most important thing is to help parents make a plan.

"You can choose what will happen to your children," she said. "You can have some level of control over this process." 

Joanna, an undocumented mom who attended one of the information sessions, says it's meaningful to see her neighbors consider making such a big commitment.

"It makes me feel good to know there are people in this community with the disposition to help," she said. But she hopes they'll never have to follow through.