Atlanta , Georgia ( CNN ) -- The little girl paused , then answered my questions : `` I 'm 7 . '' `` Second grade . '' Her hair was in braided pigtails . She wore a fancy dress . The girl had taken a seat in the folding chair next to mine after guards led another small group into the brightly lit room . We were in the post-security visitation area of the Stewart Detention Center , a privately run federal immigration facility in south Georgia . Behind us was a plain wall . In front were five sparse booths , open to the room , offering little privacy . Each booth had a chair and a large black telephone . Thick glass separated the booths from men who milled about on the other side . The men wore different colored jumpsuits : some blue , some orange , some red . Like the older woman , an aunt perhaps , who accompanied her into the room , the little girl to my right was visibly nervous . This was her first trip to the detention center . I told the girl about my own second-grader in an effort to get her mind off our surroundings . I 'm quite certain I failed . After several minutes , a man in his late 20s sat down on the other side of the glass . He picked up a phone . The little girl walked up , studied another phone for a moment , and carefully raised it to the side of her head . Her greeting was straightforward : `` Hi , Daddy . '' I could n't hear what her father said in reply . I could see his wistful smile , though , and tears rolling down his cheeks . * * * . Every day , our immigration laws are breaking apart families of many citizens living in the United States . It 's good news that , as a bipartisan group of U.S. senators seeks consensus on a plan for comprehensive immigration reform , one focus is on so-called `` family reunification '' preferences in our law . The senators are debating whether , and to what extent , our immigration policies should give priority to admitting family members of immigrant citizens -- their spouses , children and siblings -- still living abroad . But while family reunification is an important consideration , that issue avoids the larger point dramatized at the Stewart Detention Center about the harmful impact of U.S. immigration policy on families already here . More than 1.5 million unauthorized immigrants have been removed from the United States since President Obama took office in 2009 , according to the federal government 's statistics . Approximately 410,000 were removed last year alone . These numbers present an important question : Who are the immigrants we are deporting ? Yes , some are dangerous criminals who need to be arrested , prosecuted and removed through deportation . Living in the United States without legal status does not , however , amount to criminality . The Supreme Court noted this last year when it wrote , `` As a general rule , it is not a crime for a removable alien to remain present in the United States . '' Overstaying a visa , for example , is a civil violation and not a criminal one . The offenses that can trigger incarceration at detention centers like the one I visited recently include traffic violations such as driving without a valid license . This may seem like a matter of semantics to some , but incarcerating nonviolent immigrants carries real costs to the country and to the immigrants ' family members who are , in many cases , U.S. citizens . Many present-day immigrants live among us in what researchers call `` mixed status '' households . Approximately 9 million people live in these modern American families that include both citizens and unauthorized immigrants . The result is that U.S.-citizen family members are frequently left behind when immigrants are deported . Contrary to popular belief , marriage to a U.S. citizen does not automatically confer legal status on unauthorized immigrants . While marriage can provide a pathway to legal residency , that path is often long and can be overrun with bureaucratic pit stops . In many instances , our laws require immigrant spouses to return to their home countries and remain there for as long as 10 years before reunification is permitted . These extended bars to re-entry apply , for example , to Mexican nationals who arrived in this country after 2001 without authorization even if they are married to a U.S. citizen . In that way , our current immigration laws give some U.S. citizens a distressing choice : Either extended separation from their immediate families or extended separation from this country . An emerging bipartisan consensus acknowledges that our immigration laws are broken and need to be reformed , in a comprehensive way , at the federal level . As Washington tackles this issue , we should acknowledge that reform can benefit more than the immigrants living among us . It can benefit American children who attend school with our kids , American men who share pews at our churches , and American women sitting beside us in office cubicles , by keeping their families together . Done right , immigration reform can strengthen our economy , uphold our values and preserve the family units of many U.S. citizens . * * * . Before entering the Stewart Detention Center , all visitors must fill out paperwork disclosing their immigration status . I did n't see the form of the little girl I met in the visitation room , of course , or ask the question as we chatted briefly . Given her family 's willingness to bring her inside the barbed wire gates of the facility , however , it 's safe to assume that she is a native-born citizen . She 's as American as my grandfather , who grew up on Missouri farmland in the early 1900s , and who spoke nothing but German at home until the start of World War I . As American as my four children . The little girl was among many U.S. citizens who visit family member inmates at the detention center . On the day of my visit , at the other end of the room , a woman in her 40s sat in the corner booth . She saved up gas money and drove more than 300 miles for this chance to have a one-hour visit with her husband . Born and raised in western North Carolina , she lives on land that was owned by her father , and her father 's father before him . She met her husband in a thrift store in her hometown . They fell in love . In the visitation room , the woman held a phone and spoke to her husband in Spanglish with a country twang . What she wanted most that day was the chance to touch his hand , just for a moment , through the glass . That was a chance she did n't get . Without changes to our federal immigration laws , more husbands and fathers , and wives and mothers , of American citizens will be deported . More American children will be raised outside the presence of a parent 's love and financial support . And more Americans -- like the woman I saw pressing the palm of her hand against cold glass in a detention center booth -- may not have the chance to touch their spouses again . At least not in our country . At least not anytime soon . The current immigration system does not make our nation , or our families , stronger . We can do better . We can reform our immigration laws in a way that brings hardworking people out of the shadows and keeps families together . That is , or at least should be , the American way . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Chris Marquardt .
Chris Marquardt describes a privately run immigration detention center in Georgia . He says it was clear that families with American citizens were broken due to detention process . People who commit civil violations are treated as criminals , he says . Family : Immigration law needs to include provisions to protect families .