On Aug. 19, Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush called for greater border enforcement, ostensibly to prevent pregnant mothers from coming to the United States to deliver “anchor babies,” an offensive term for children born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants. The comment has drawn sharp criticism from Latinos, Asians and immigrant rights advocates. Bush has fumbled his response to the controversy.

Beyond its dehumanizing consequences, the myth of the “anchor baby” perpetuates the mistaken notion that having a U.S. citizen child is an effective means for unauthorized parents to stay in the United States. The fact is, having children who are U.S. citizens is rarely a factor in immigration decisions and the U.S. routinely rips families apart.

Separating a family through deportation can inflict severe trauma on children. But during his first six years in office, President Barack Obama’s administration deported more than 2 million immigrants under a legal framework that makes little to no consideration for family ties.

Obama’s recent executive actions offer some hope of partial protection to millions of undocumented families currently in the United States. But for those who are already torn apart and who try to return to the United States “as an act of love for their families,” as Bush put it last year, there is no legal recourse.

A Human Rights Watch (HRW) analysis of apprehensions at the border from 2011 to 2012 found that U.S. immigration agents detained and summarily deported more than 100,000 parents of more than 200,000 U.S. citizen children in those two years alone. Fewer than 10 percent of the parents of U.S. citizen children apprehended by border agents were allowed a hearing before an immigration judge at which they could potentially make claims about their family ties.

Marta Garcia lived in the U.S. for more than 20 years and is married to a U.S. citizen with whom she has three children. She left the U.S. in 2013 to care for her dying mother in Mexico, thinking that she could reenter the country legally since her application to gain legal status through her husband was pending.