DACA Associated with Improved Birth Outcomes Among Mexican-Immigrant Mothers

The 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program granted work authorization and protection from deportation to more than 800,000 young undocumented immigrants who arrived to the United States as minors. In a recent study, we investigated the association between this expansion of legal rights and birth outcomes among 72,613 singleton births to high school-educated Mexican-immigrant women in the United States from June 2010 to May 2014 using birth records data from the National Center for Health Statistics. We found that DACA was associated with improvements in the rates of low birth weight and very low birth weight, birth weight in grams, and gestational age among infants born to Mexican-immigrant mothers. Policymakers should consider this evidence of DACA's direct and intergenerational health benefits in future reforms of immigration legislation

Social politics: The importance of the family for naturalization decisions of the 1.5 generation

How do migrants make the decision to naturalize? The majority of the literature focuses on the economic costs and benefit calculus of individual migrants, usually those who arrived as adults. Yet a large and growing population of foreign-born individuals arrived as children. Despite spending their formative years in the United States, many remain foreign nationals into adulthood. Based on results from a discrete-time event history model of naturalization of 1.5 generation respondents in California we argue that the cost-benefit tradeoffs underlying most accounts of naturalization decisions will apply in different ways to this population. We show that especially for this population the decision to naturalize cannot be conceptualized as an individual choice but is strongly embedded within the family and co-ethnic context which, in turn, introduces symbolic concerns and country of origin related factors into the decision

The Economic Impacts of Long-Term Immigration Detention in Southern California

In 2013, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained over 477,000 immigrants at a cost of over $2 billion (or$161 per detainee, per day). Today, more than 33,000 immigrants are held in ICE custody on any given day.  These numbers indicate a sharp expansion in immigration detention.  The Economic Impacts of Long-Term Immigration Detention in Southern California, a new IRLE report by Caitlin Patler, shows that detention of immigrants for 6 months or longer places severe strains on their families.  Lost wages from the Immigrant Detention Study sample of 562 detainees-a small fraction of the total detainee population-totaled an estimated $12 million.  More than two-thirds of detainee families include at least one citizen or Lawful Permanent Residence. Detention is creating an economic crisis for immigrant communities. Long-term immigration detention is creating an economic crisis for immigrant communities, which impacts the economic status of not only individual detainees, but of entire households.

The Economic Impacts of Long-Term Immigration Detention in Southern California

In 2013, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained over 477,000 immigrants at a cost of over $2 billion (or$161 per detainee, per day). Today, more than 33,000 immigrants are held in ICE custody on any given day.  These numbers indicate a sharp expansion in immigration detention.  The Economic Impacts of Long-Term Immigration Detention in Southern California, a new IRLE report by Caitlin Patler, shows that detention of immigrants for 6 months or longer places severe strains on their families.  Lost wages from the Immigrant Detention Study sample of 562 detainees-a small fraction of the total detainee population-totaled an estimated $12 million.  More than two-thirds of detainee families include at least one citizen or Lawful Permanent Residence. Detention is creating an economic crisis for immigrant communities. Long-term immigration detention is creating an economic crisis for immigrant communities, which impacts the economic status of not only individual detainees, but of entire households.

7 Myths about Undocumented Immigration

I have spent the last 13 years working with undocumented communities in Los Angeles and have witnessed, time and time again, how the ripple effects of living without formal immigration status can tear apart the lives of some of the people I hold dearest. And so part of my personal, professionaland political life’s work has been to fightalongside undocumented folks in the struggle to gain rights, recognition, and respect. Immigration—especially undocumented immigration—is a loaded topic in this country. The President is talking about it, Members of Congress are debating about it, pundits are complaining about it, and everybody has an opinion about it. However, as I have engaged in this work over the past decade, I have met hundreds of people who are confused and/or misinformed about undocumented immigration, in large part due to negative representations of immigrants in the media. This article attempts to address some of the most common misconceptions about undocumented immigration

Young and Undocumented: The Impacts of Legal Status on the Incorporation of Immigrant Young Adults in California

This dissertation investigates a critical paradox of contemporary U.S. immigration policy. On one hand, undocumented immigrants are legally excludable from the state, blocked from formal economic integration, and socially stigmatized. Yet they also have rights such as access to K-12 education for undocumented children. How do undocumented young adults experience this incomplete inclusion and what does it mean for their integration? What impacts does legal status have on their educational outcomes and social network formation? What tactics do they employ as they struggle for more formal inclusion? I seek to answer these questions in three empirical chapters. The first two empirical chapters draw principally from in-depth interviews with undocumented young adults in Los Angeles, as well as two samples of the 2011-12 California Young Adult Study: a random sample of 1.5-generation and second generation Latinos, and a listed sample of participants of immigrant student organizations. The final empirical chapter analyzes 125 anti-deportation campaigns led by national undocumented youth organizations.Chapter two examines the educational impacts of legal status on young adults. Regression analysis reveals that undocumented youth face a penalty in educational outcomes, compared to their citizen peers, even after controlling for socioeconomic background and high school tracking. However, other non-citizen youth also face educational disadvantage, suggesting both undocumented disadvantage and citizenship advantage. Chapter three argues that the everyday experience of "illegality" comes to structure the social network formation and comfort in accessing school-based resources early in adolescence, even for members of immigrant rights organizations. However, I also find that the presence of other undocumented youth in the extended social network becomes a critical resource for navigating formal exclusion. Chapter four explores how some undocumented youth have resisted exclusion in much more public ways. I show how immigrant youth organizations advocate for young adults in deportation proceedings by deploying ideologies of citizenship that emphasize acculturation, civic engagement, and innocence. However, anti-deportation campaigns remain bounded by the government's priorities for deportation, emphasizing a version of citizenship that may ultimately exclude many other immigrants. Ultimately, I argue that existing assimilation theories, in their focus on social structures and shared group characteristics, do not fully account for the experiences of legal status at the individual level. I conclude that the incorporation of undocumented young adults remains incomplete, in ways that are enforced explicitly by laws and experienced by undocumented youth both directly and implicitly within schools and social networks. While some youth alter the course of their daily lives in order to avoid discovery, others find themselves making a claim against exclusion based on social citizenship, membership and belonging

Young and Undocumented: The Impacts of Legal Status on the Incorporation of Immigrant Young Adults in California

This dissertation investigates a critical paradox of contemporary U.S. immigration policy. On one hand, undocumented immigrants are legally excludable from the state, blocked from formal economic integration, and socially stigmatized. Yet they also have rights such as access to K-12 education for undocumented children. How do undocumented young adults experience this incomplete inclusion and what does it mean for their integration? What impacts does legal status have on their educational outcomes and social network formation? What tactics do they employ as they struggle for more formal inclusion? I seek to answer these questions in three empirical chapters. The first two empirical chapters draw principally from in-depth interviews with undocumented young adults in Los Angeles, as well as two samples of the 2011-12 California Young Adult Study: a random sample of 1.5-generation and second generation Latinos, and a listed sample of participants of immigrant student organizations. The final empirical chapter analyzes 125 anti-deportation campaigns led by national undocumented youth organizations.Chapter two examines the educational impacts of legal status on young adults. Regression analysis reveals that undocumented youth face a penalty in educational outcomes, compared to their citizen peers, even after controlling for socioeconomic background and high school tracking. However, other non-citizen youth also face educational disadvantage, suggesting both undocumented disadvantage and citizenship advantage. Chapter three argues that the everyday experience of "illegality" comes to structure the social network formation and comfort in accessing school-based resources early in adolescence, even for members of immigrant rights organizations. However, I also find that the presence of other undocumented youth in the extended social network becomes a critical resource for navigating formal exclusion. Chapter four explores how some undocumented youth have resisted exclusion in much more public ways. I show how immigrant youth organizations advocate for young adults in deportation proceedings by deploying ideologies of citizenship that emphasize acculturation, civic engagement, and innocence. However, anti-deportation campaigns remain bounded by the government's priorities for deportation, emphasizing a version of citizenship that may ultimately exclude many other immigrants. Ultimately, I argue that existing assimilation theories, in their focus on social structures and shared group characteristics, do not fully account for the experiences of legal status at the individual level. I conclude that the incorporation of undocumented young adults remains incomplete, in ways that are enforced explicitly by laws and experienced by undocumented youth both directly and implicitly within schools and social networks. While some youth alter the course of their daily lives in order to avoid discovery, others find themselves making a claim against exclusion based on social citizenship, membership and belonging

Well-Being, Changes to Academic Behavior, and Resilience Among Families Experiencing Parental Immigration Imprisonment

While the deleterious impacts of parental incarceration are well documented, we know less about the experiences of children with parents imprisoned by immigration authorities. We draw from 62 multigenerational and multiperspective interviews conducted in California with school-age children experiencing parental immigration imprisonment (PII), and their nondetained caregivers. We find that children experiencing PII report feelings and behaviors suggestive of significant psychological distress, which leads to changes in engagement and behavior at school. While some children access academic support and counseling, often following advocacy from nondetained parents or interventions by teachers, others do not receive such support. Many children conceal their family’s situation and withdraw from school-based programs—alarmingly, the very same structures that could support them through PII. These behaviors are rooted in compounded vulnerability, that is, children’s overlapping experiences of parents’ imprisonment and precarious immigration status. Our study provides strong descriptive evidence of the extensive harms of PII for children. These results should prompt immediate action from policymakers who can legislate an end to incarceration in immigration legal proceedings. Our findings can also inform efforts by educators and schools to better support children experiencing PII