WASHINGTON, Feb 14: More than 100,000 parents whose children are US citizens were deported over the decade that ended in 2007, a Department of Homeland Security’s investigation has found.

The parents were removed from the country on immigration violations or because they had committed crimes. The removals of the 108,434 parents were among the approximately 2.2 million carried out by immigration officials between 1998 and 2007, Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner said in a report made public on Friday.

Mr Skinner warned that the numbers were incomplete because Immigration and Customs Enforcement didn’t fully document such cases. The agency also did not keep track of how many children each parent had. He said immigration officials should start collecting more data on removed parents and their children.In response to the findings, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement said it would study whether it could gather better information. Its study is due in about two months.

“I am saddened, but not surprised to learn that our government, in its harsh anti-immigrant stance, has split hundreds of thousands of families apart over the past decade,” said Democratic Rep Jose Serrano.

Mr Serrano serves on the House Appropriations Committee’s panel that helps decide how much money is provided to the Homeland Security Department each year. He has filed a bill, the Child Citizen Protection Act, that would allow immigration judges to consider whether immigrants had children who were US citizens when making deportation decisions.

“If, in fact, some (children) were left behind here, then you have the sad tragedy of breaking up families,” Mr Serrano said. “If they were taken back, I would argue the direct result of our actions is the deportation of our citizens. How do you deport a US citizen?”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez said the agency would review whether to establish procedures to ascertain whether deported immigrants have children under the age of 18 who are US citizens. But she also noted the impact of giving reprieve to immigrants who violated US laws.

“Parenthood does not exempt any person from complying with the nation’s laws, including immigration laws,” Ms Gonzalez said.

Children of immigrant families who are US citizens have long created a dilemma for Congress as it has tried to control immigration. People born in the US automatically become US citizens. But American children cannot petition for their parents to become legal US residents until they are at least 21.

Immigration officials reported 319,382 deportations in 2007, compared to 174,813 in 1998. Mr Skinner said the number of parents removed over that period generally increased, with 13,081 individual parents removed in 1998.

Some of the parents were removed from the country more than once, so in the 10 years there were actually 180,466 removals of the 108,434 parents.—AP