Latino/a Citizen Children of Undocumented Parents Negotiating Illegality

DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12551
Date01 June 2019
Published date01 June 2019
C R University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Latino/a Citizen Children of Undocumented Parents
Negotiating Illegality
Objective: The objective of this study is to exam-
ine how citizen young adults with undocumented
parents manage parental illegality.
Background: These citizen young adults are
part of mixed-status families, which consist
of members with different immigration statuses
and often include U.S. citizen and undocumented
immigrant family members. With 16million peo-
ple in mixed-status families, scholars are
beginning to capture their unique experiences,
but little is known about the adult-age citizen
children in these families.
Method: Data for this study include interviews
with 34 Latino/a citizen young adults ages
18 to 28. Interviews were analyzed by using
the sociological concepts of legal violence
and multigenerational punishment.
Results: The ndings demonstrate that young
adults are somewhat shielded from parental
deportation concerns because of less sustained
contact with parents and because of the percep-
tion that parents are cautious. Young adults also
manage illegality when they apply for federal
college nancial aid and navigate the possibility
of sponsoring their immigrant parents for legal-
ization. Youngadults’ legal access to wage labor
also entails distinct responsibilities to partici-
pate in family breadwinning.
Department of Sociology, Universityof Nevada, Las Vegas,
Box 455033, 4505 S. Maryland Pkwy. Las Vegas, NV
89154-5033 (cassaundra.rodriguez@unlv.edu).
The article was edited by Corinne Reczek.
Key Words: emerging adulthood, family dynamics, His-
panic/Latino/a, immigrants, immigration, intergenerational
relationships.
Conclusion: This research demonstrates
how parental undocumented status shapes
family negotiations and state-produced pun-
ishments for adult citizen children previously
unaccounted for in immigration and family
scholarship. These ndings point to the distinct
challenges of citizen young adults—experiences
that differ from undocumented peers, the chil-
dren of lawfully present parents, and minor
children in mixed-status families.
Mixed-status families are characterized by
family members with different immigration
statuses. These families are not rare, as there
are currently more than 16 million people in
mixed-status families in the United States
(Mathema, 2017). The research on mixed-status
families has been limited despite their unique
challenges caused by restrictive immigration
policies (Noah & Landale, 2017). Much of the
literature has centered on the well-being of
minor citizen children in these families (Dreby,
2012; Fix & Zimmerman, 2001; Yoshikawa,
2011; Zayas, 2015), whereas other research has
investigated the lives of Latino/a undocumented
parents (Cardoso, Scott, Faulkner, & Lane,
2018; Dreby, 2015; Enriquez, 2015) and the
experiences of undocumented/DACAmented
young adults (Abrego, 2006; Enriquez, 2015;
Gonzales, 2011, 2015). Family researchers
recognize the saliency of ongoing parent–child
ties as children become adults, but there is
minimal research on adult citizen children who
have undocumented parents. For example, the
limited research on citizen young adults in
mixed-status families has centered on their
Journal of Marriage and Family 81 (June 2019): 713–728 713
DOI:10.1111/jomf.12551
714 Journal of Marriage and Family
political engagement or educational attain-
ment (Bean, Bachmeier, & Brown, 2015;
Bloemraad, 2013; Brown & Sanchez, 2017;
Flores-González, 2010). Researchers, then,
know very little about how citizen young adults
manage parental illegality in their lives.
This article asks how might citizen young
adults with undocumented parents negotiate ille-
gality? How do they manage parental illegality
in their lives? In asking these questions,I place
at the forefront family negotiations as well as a
legal context that compels families to manage
illegality as a collective. I turn to the young adult
children who are between the ages of 18 and 28
and have undocumented parents who migrated
to the United States as adults. Analyzing a sam-
ple of 34 Latino/a citizen children in Los Ange-
les County, I build on and apply Menjívar and
Abrego’s (2012) concept of “legal violence,” as
well as Enriquez’s (2015) concept of “multi-
generational punishment” to examine how ille-
gality enters the lives of citizen young adults
in mixed-status families. In doing so, I cap-
ture the experiences of citizen young adults who
face circumstances not shared by the children
of legal immigrant or citizen parents. Instead,
these adult children manage inequalities of legal
violence. These ndings bring attention to the
unique inequities faced by adult citizen chil-
dren in mixed-status families and enriches fam-
ily research.
I R 
M- F
Generally, relationships between parents
and adult-age children are imbued with tension,
solidarity, and ambivalence (Gilligan, Suitor,
Feld, & Pillemer, 2015). These family processes
can be especially highlighted when children
become emerging adults, that is, adults between
late adolescence to late 20s (Arnett, 2000).
Research with predominantly White American
samples suggests that emerging adults do not
necessarily view themselves as adults—a sen-
timent also expressed by their parents (Nelson
et al., 2007). Still, adulthood is a moment of
changes. Emerging adults tend to perceive tran-
sitions to adulthood as marked by social and
economic independence as well as other individ-
ualistic pursuits (Arnett, 2000, 2001). There is
little difference between White and non-White
perceptions of what constitutes adulthood, but
Asian American, Black, and Latino/a adults are
more likely to report obligations to their families
when compared with White emerging adults
(Arnett, 2003). Parents also report helping their
adult children by acting as their safety nets for
economic support (Swartz, Kim, Uni, Mortimer,
& O’Brien, 2011). Indeed, parents continue
to offer nancial and instrumental support to
adult-age children (Swartz, 2009). On the other
hand, adult children in Mexican immigrant
families may be expected to nancially assist
their parents to help make ends meet (Vallejo
& Lee, 2009). This might be a heightened
obligation for adult children in mixed-status
families because undocumented Latino/a par-
ents are often limited in accessing well-paying,
formalized work (Yoshikawa, 2011). Young
adults with undocumented parents may not have
an intergenerational relationship whereby their
parents are able to serve as their economic safety
nets. To the contrary, adult citizen children may
be the family members who nancially assist
undocumented parents.
In much of the intergenerational immigrant
family research questions about acculturation,
transnational ties and gendered relationships
tend to dominate the eld (Foner & Dreby,
2011). When legal status distinctions are made
among mixed-status families, the research has
been directed by questions concerning how
parents’ undocumented status may impact the
well-being of young children. For instance,
researchers have argued that parental undoc-
umented status negatively inuences citizen
children’s access to social services or educa-
tional programs (Capps, Hagan, & Rodriguez,
2004; Fix & Zimmerman, 2001; Vargas &
Pirog, 2016; Yoshikawa, 2011). Undocumented
parents’ status also impacts children’s cognitive
development and educational attainment (Bean
et al., 2015; Yoshikawa, 2011). Children are
also limited by the travel restrictions placed on
their undocumented parents and family mem-
bers (Figueroa, 2012). In this sense, the legal
limitations placed on undocumented parents
extend to their children, including children who
are U.S. citizens. Adult children in immigrant
families, however, may experience a different
relationship to illegality once they are adult age
and may have to manage new responsibilities.
It is also possible that legal status distinctions
inuence the household division of labor. For
instance, U.S.-born youth with undocumented
siblings report doing the least amount of house-
hold labor (Dreby, 2015). Furthermore, perhaps

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