We have heard their heart-wrenching stories. We have seen their teary-eyed faces. But not until now do we have a better picture of how thousands of children have been affected by the arbitrary detention and deportation of their parents during immigration raids.

An in-depth report recently released by the National Council of La Raza and the Urban Institute shows how children are paying the highest price in the ongoing debate over immigration policy and the hard-line practices of immigration authorities.

Thousands of undocumented immigrants have been arrested and deported in the past year, but researchers focused on three cities where massive raids had been conducted in the workplace. They were Greeley, Colo., Grand Island, Neb., and New Bedford, Mass. In dozens of interviews, they were able to get a firsthand account of the aftermath of the raids.

Perhaps the most important finding is the enormous amount of children who were affected. For every two adults arrested, one child was left behind. Among the 900 adults detained were the parents of more than 500 children. Two-thirds of those children were U.S. citizens, and a similar amount were under 10 years old.

After the initial bursts of outrage over the separation of families, immigration agents began releasing some of the detainees who were single parents, but many were kept overnight or for several days. Some were sent to detention centers in other states. At times, the detainees had no access to telephones and were unable to make arrangements to have their children cared for.

The short-term impact, the study found, is that extended-family members and community organizations had to scramble to take over some of the child-care duties and deal with the lack of food, diapers and clothing for the kids. The long-term impact is more worrisome. Both children and temporary caretakers had to deal with the economic hardship and psychological trauma caused by the arrests and the uncertainty of not knowing if and when the parents would return.

The study focused on children, according to the report, because "they have strong claims to the protection of society, especially when they are citizens and are integrated into their schools and communities." For many of them, the U.S. is the only country they have ever known.

Nora Sandigo couldn't agree more. The Nicaraguan businesswoman-turned-immigration-activist has become a one-woman fighting machine for the rights of children who are at risk of being left behind as a result of immigration raids. Sandigo has been defending the rights of immigrants since founding the nonprofit, community-based organization American Fraternity in 1989 in Miami.

But now more than ever, she is carrying a big weight on her shoulders. She has been given legal custody -- as guardian ad litem -- of more than 600 children of undocumented immigrants from all around the country. It is estimated that around 5 million U.S.-born children in this country have at least one parent who is undocumented.

Sandigo is trying to prevent the separation of these children from their parents on whatever front she can. She recently met with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and got them to commit to introducing legislation that would attempt to block the deportations and ask that undocumented parents of U.S.-born children be given a renewable five-year visa, until their American children can claim them.

She has even taken her uphill battle all the way to the highest court in the country. A class-action lawsuit filed in the Supreme Court on behalf of hundreds of children claims that their civil, human and constitutional rights are being violated by the detention and deportation of their parents, and demands a moratorium on the raids.

It is good to know that there are organizations and individuals in this country looking out for the rights of the most vulnerable members of our society. But a country that aspires, as its core educational goal, to not leave any child behind needs to take notice of how its immigration policies and practices are not just leaving millions of innocent children behind, but putting their well-being and their future at risk.

Maria Elena Salinas can be contacted at www.mariaesalinas.com.

(Nov. 9, 2007)