The great US landmark, the Statue of Liberty, welcomed the tired, the hungry, the poor and, lest we forget, the Irish. The great Irish landmark is soon to be a spike - not so much a "monument of light" as a monument of exclusion - not so much a light as a sharp stick to beat off "undesirable" children and their parents.

The Children's Rights Alliance (CRA) has called on the Government to halt the deportation of non-national parents of Irish children until the Government can explain what will happen to the children involved and how their rights will be protected. That would seem to be the humane approach.

When the CRA asked the Government to answer the question "Who will care for the children left behind?" the response, according to published reports, called this "a hypothetical situation that has not arisen yet so we have no comment to make". Raymond Dooley, chief executive of the CRA, believes that the question is no longer hypothetical following last week's High Court decision. "In court the Government's lawyers said they would expect the deported parents to discharge their 'duty' to take their Irish children with them when they leave - in other words, to effectively deport them. But what if they don't? Can the Government guarantee that the rights of the children will be fully protected and their needs fully met if the parents leave their children behind? As Irish citizens, they have the same rights as other Irish children, including the right to family life," says Dooley.

"And what will happen to them if they are effectively deported along with their parents ? How will their rights be safeguarded in a foreign land?" As parents, we should insist that our Government address the consequences for these children before it starts deporting their parents.