I read an interesting article about a small family consisting of a father and son being broken apart after the father was deported to Mexico. The son was ultimately placed in foster care. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700197990/The-children-left-behind-Dads-deportation-lands-son-in-foster-care.html?pg=1. The hardest part of the story is hearing that the reason that the father was originally arrested was due to a warrant for an unpaid parking ticket. If the father had paid the small ticket, he most likely would never had problems with the police and ultimately ICE. Hearing the story stresses the importance of immigrant or part immigrant families needing to do something to fix their immigration status. In some cases, there may not be any options, but in many cases there are. It is much better to be proactive rather than reactive when someone is picked up by the police and then has an ICE detainer not allowing them to leave the jail.
Some options include filing an I-130 petition and attempting an adjustment of status if one entered the country legally.
For those that did enter without inspection, they will need to return to Mexico and consular process through an embassy in Ciudad Juarez. It is a lot easier to consular process without a deportation and criminal convictions on one’s record. A person may not want to return to Mexico to do a consular process, but it is better to attempt this rather than wait until one is deported.
Further, life for an in immigrant in the United States is infinitely better without having to worry about being detected. Illegal immigrants often fear paying tickets and other petty offenses because they are scared they will be caught. All of that goes away with a successful consular process.
I always recommend that clients attempt this, especially young families. Having legal status is a fundamental base to a solid family life in the United States. Otherwise, one could be looking years down the road at a deportation while leaving a spouse and children behind to fend for themselves. No one wants that. The hardest call I hear in my office is the one from a child saying that their parent is in jail and cannot be released due to an ICE hold.
We can help people in any situation listed above, but strongly encourage all immigrants to be proactive and attempt to fix their status before being discovered by the government and all the negative consequences associated therewith.