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Since 2014, my researchers and I have studied how having, lacking, gaining or losing legal status, especially DACA, affects immigrant families in New York State. The most wrenching, recurring story we hear is how much children fear their parents will be deported by police in a traffic stop.
Their fear is well based. New York State could stop this fear, and other preventable harms being done to these mostly U.S.-citizen children, by passing the “Green Light” law and allowing established, undocumented immigrants to get standard driver’s licenses.
The children’s fear is backed up by United States Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS) data available through Syracuse University’s TRAC system, which reports that of 100,614 people deported from New York State between 2002-2017, the most serious crime for 68,799 (69%) was “No Conviction,” meaning they were deported only for being undocumented, not for committing a crime.
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