Hope for Change: DAPA and Immigrant Family Relationships

Social scientists have longed looked at family separation via one parent migration where children are often left behind with the second parent or family members (Hondagneu-Sotelo 1992), transnational families where entire... [ view full abstract ]

Social scientists have longed looked at family separation via one parent migration where children are often left behind with the second parent or family members (Hondagneu-Sotelo 1992), transnational families where entire families are separated by physical borders and immigration laws (Abrego and LaRossa 2009; Dreby 2007; Mazzucato and Schans 2011), families separated by deportations (Capps et al. 2007; Chaudry et al. 2010; Hagan, Eschbach, and Rodriguez 2008; Hagan, Rodriguez, and Castro 2011), but only some have looked at mixed-status families that remain “intact” from deportation proceedings and must navigate everyday life with fear (Dreby 2015; Foner and Dreby 2011; Romero 2008).

An estimated 11.7 million undocumented immigrants reside in the U.S. where 3.9 million are parents of U.S. born or legal permanent residents children and 1.5 million are immigrant youth raised in the U.S. who are attending school, have graduated, and hold no criminal records (Center for Migration Studies 2015). Legal status as an administrative constructed category not only effects the individuals labeled by their legal status, but also those surrounding them. It is estimated that 16.6 million individuals in the US live in mixed-status families (families with multiple legal statuses) with at least one undocumented individual (Taylor et al. 2011).

Thus, this work attempts to adjudicate the effects of legal status on family to ask how legal status as imposed by the state shapes Mexican family interfamily relationships of families that have remained untouched by state immigration policing. These families may be eligible for pathways to legalization if they existed and if they were given the opportunity by legislation or if at least President Obama’s November 2014 executive actions, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) and Extended Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), were implemented and not stalled by the judicial system.

In this paper, evidence used will come from approximately 42 in-depth qualitative interviews with immigrant families in California – Alameda and Los Angeles counties. California is chosen because it has the highest number of Mexican undocumented families. This study interviews multiple family members with a minimum of one parent and one child from each family. Undocumented families with parents that are eligible for DAPA are oversampled and compared to undocumented families who are non-eligible and a comparable group of Mexican legalized permanent resident (who may or may not have become U.S. citizens).

Based on my in-progress research, I ask how legal status is shaped by the state and consequently effects family inequality. Tentative findings suggest that (1) the position of each individual within the family and their legal status matters, (2) gender in combination with legal status can increase and/or exacerbate inequalities, and (3) parents may feel the need to overcompensate undocumented children due to their status while having higher expectations for U.S. born [or documented] children. Overall, this work draws on previous research on family and legal status to consider how the state (in)action shapes interrealationships of mixed-status families that have yet to experience separation (i.e. forced or self-deportation).