108,000 people deported had US citizen children

WASHINGTON - More than 100,000 parents whose children are American citizens were deported over the decade that ended in 2007, a Department of Homeland Security investigation has found.

The parents were removed from the country on immigration violations or because they had committed crimes.

The deportations of the 108,434 parents were among the approximately 2.2 million carried out by immigration officials between 1998 and 2007, Inspector General Richard Skinner said in a report made public yesterday.

Skinner warned that the numbers were incomplete because the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency doesn't fully document such cases. The agency also does not keep track of how many children each parent has.

He recommended that immigration officials start collecting more data on deported parents and their children.

In response to the findings, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement said it would study whether it can gather better information. Its study is due in about two months.