Custody case complicates deportation of illegal immigrant
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What happens when immigration law and family law conflict? When a parent is here illegally, does a federal deportation order automatically trump a state custody order? Should child custody issues be considered in immigration cases? Anna Gorman of the Los Angeles Times asks those questions in this report about a custody case for a boy, Michael Campo, involving a father who is an illegal immigrant.
On Friday nights, Michael Campo throws his clothes and homework into his backpack and waits at his mom’s Long Beach apartment for the phone to ring. When it does, 10-year-old Michael runs downstairs and jumps into his dad’s car. Thus begins the weekly ritual familiar to millions of American children in split families who bounce back and forth between mother and father. But Michael’s situation has an added wrinkle that threatens to derail the custody agreement and his weekends with Dad: Carlos Alvarado is an illegal immigrant involved in deportation proceedings.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City