Maria’s husband worked two jobs to help pay rent, to buy food and other necessities. Maria, who prefers not to have her last name printed, says he was working one day in late September, when police approached him. Now, he’s being held at Piedmont Regional Jail in Farmville. Maria and their 8-year-old-daughter have not seen him since.

Maria’s husband, like many other undocumented workers, was a target of recent efforts by the federal government to cut down on illegal immigration. Raids by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have increased in the Charlottesville area, says Linda Hemby, member of Creciendo Juntos, an inter-agency network focused on the Latino community in Charlottesville, Albemarle and surrounding counties.

Linda Hemby, at a panel discussion last week, said that there has been evidence that ICE agents are going into Southwood "knocking on doors with deportation orders."

Those targeted by the federal government are undocumented immigrants who either have already been ordered deported but are still in the country or have a deportation letter waiting for them. Some attribute the increase in deportations to local law enforcement checking workers’ immigration status during routine traffic stops. According to Weldon Cooper Center estimates, 3.3 percent of Charlottesville’s population is Hispanic.

On October 9, Hemby moderated a panel on the impact of immigration raids on Latino children, saying that there has been evidence that ICE agents are going into Southwood trailer park “knocking on doors with deportation orders,” she said.

Calls to ICE were not returned by press time. According to the 2007 ICE annual report, 276,912 illegal aliens were deported, including 40,534 who have done so voluntarily.

Hemby and other panelists urged Latino parents to plan for a potential deportation: have children’s passports ready both for those born in the U.S., and those who were brought to the state without immigration documents; make travel arrangements if they choose deportation; and, if possible, decide whom to designate as legal guardian if they decide to leave their kids behind.

Maria, speaking in Spanish, says her daughter is very sad. Both are desperate and don’t know what will happen to their family. Maria’s husband had help from her brother, but he too is now gone. “He went back to El Salvador,” says Maria, who is now living with three other people to be able to pay rent.

Michael Garcia, a counselor, said children who lose one or both parents face a future of significant psychological distress. “The younger the child, the more traumatic the separation,” he said. Some children may need to blame someone for the loss, he said, and are likely to become violent, passive and paranoid.

Eddie Summers, attorney at the Charlottesville Immigration Clinic, said that when workers are picked up and put in jail, the detention could last from a few days to a couple of months.

“Getting people and locking them up is a priority,” he says, “but once they are in, the deportation is not so much a priority.” Summers is representing Maria’s husband. He is not at liberty to disclose or discuss any details from the case.

Because the federal government has failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform, state and local governments are “trying to fix the problem,” using their scarce resources, says Tim Freilich, legal director of Charlottesville Legal Aid Justice Center. “Federal agents are enforcing a broken immigration system.”

C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.