Paradoxes of Family Immigration Policy: Separation, Reorganization, and Reunification of Families under Current Immigration Laws

• Published date: 01 January 2015
• Author: Cecilia Menjívar,María E. Enchautegui
• Date: 01 January 2015
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/lapo.12030

Paradoxes of Family Immigration Policy:

Separation, Reorganization, and Reunification

of Families under Current Immigration Laws

MARÍA E. ENCHAUTEGUI and CECILIA MENJÍVAR

It is increasingly recognized that immigration laws affect immigrants’ integration.

Most recently there has been growing attention to how immigration enforcement

affects families through forced separations caused by deportations and long-term

family separations across national borders stemming from unauthorized entry to

the United States. However, beyond enforcement, there has been little systematic

account of how other provisions of immigration law contribute to family

separations. In this article we examine how four key provisions in immigration

law, far from creating conditions for immigrant families to reunite, contribute to

keeping families apart. As such, these provisions shape, in fundamental ways, the

structure and composition of immigrant families. Relying on data from the Ameri-

can Community Survey and ethnographic interviews in Phoenix, Arizona, we find

evidence consistent with the premise that immigration laws affect the formation,

composition, and structure of immigrant families with potential long-term

consequences.

INTRODUCTION

Family unity has long been a foundation of US immigration policy (US

Department of Homeland Security 2011a), a position reflected in the promi-

nence that, since 1965, the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) has given

to family members when allocating visas for entry to the United States. 65

percent of the over 1 million individuals who became legal permanent resi-

dents in fiscal year (FY) 2011 were immediate relatives of US citizens and

family-sponsored immigrants (US Department of Homeland Security

2011b). Paradoxically, however, this family-based immigration system con-

tains many provisions that keep families apart and uncertain of when or if

family reunification will take place. Recognizing how immigration laws keep

family members apart, Hong (2014) calls for the development of the field of

“famigration,” bringing immigration law more in line with family law.

Underlying the family-based system is the belief that such a system speeds the

Address correspondence to María E. Enchautegui, Urban Institute, 2100 M St. NW, Washing-

ton DC, 20037, USA. Telephone: (202) 261-5771; E-mail: menchaut@urban.org.

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LAW & POLICY, Vol. 37, Nos 1–2, January–April 2015 ISSN 0265–8240

© 2015 The Authors

Law & Policy © 2015 The University of Denver/Colorado Seminary

doi: 10.1111/lapo.12030

integration of immigrants (Kandel 2013). But also paradoxically, the promi-

nence of the nuclear family ideal in visa allocation, coupled with family

separations, limits the economic opportunities of many immigrants and

hinders their social integration.

In this article we unveil the mechanisms embedded in immigration laws

that, far from contributing to reunite immigrant families, create conditions

for keeping family members apart. Our working premise is that contempo-

rary immigration laws structure and restructure immigrant families by deter-

mining who is allowed to come in legally, and how many, and under what

conditions (Enchautegui 2013a; Glick 2010; Gratton, Gutmann, and Skop

2007; Menjívar 2006a). We focus on the legislative aspects of the immigration

system that contribute to maintain families separated for undetermined

periods of time and hence affect the composition, structure, and organization

of immigrant families.

The immigration law provisions on which we focus are those that: (1)

determine which family members can be admitted, how many, and in what

priority; (2) set minimum income levels for sponsoring the entry of a family

member; (3) bar legal reentry into the United States after a period of unau-

thorized residence; and (4) stipulate the treatment of immigrants residing

without authorization and in temporary protected status. To examine

empirically how these four mechanisms affect family composition, we rely

on two complementary sources of data: the American Community Survey

(ACS) data and ethnographic interviews with immigrants in Phoenix,

Arizona.

Most of the recent attention on immigration laws and family composition

has been on family separations resulting from immigration enforcement,

especially from deportations (Menjívar 2014; Dreby 2012; Brabeck and Xu

2010; Hagan, Castro, and Rodriguez 2010). But deportations are not the only

way immigration laws impinge on family composition. Research has dis-

cussed how the long waiting lines for visas in the family preference categories

keep families separated (Obinna 2014; Landale, Thomas, and Van Hook

2011; Cruz 2010). There are also other less visible and lesser-known provi-

sions in immigration law that contribute to keep immigrant families sepa-

rated such as the affidavit of support and reentry bars for those who lived

unauthorized in the United States. Finally, millions of undocumented and

temporary protected status immigrants, most of whom are settled in the

United States (Enchautegui 2013b, 2014), are prevented from reuniting with

their families because immigration laws do not provide a pathway for these

immigrants to become legal permanent residents and be able to petition for

family members. These immigration laws affect the largest number of immi-

grants reaching not only the undocumented, but also legal permanent resi-

dents, naturalized citizens, and immigrants in quasi-legal situations such as

those in temporary protection status. Moreover, immigrant families may be

affected by more than one of these laws simultaneously or across their lives

in the United States.

Enchautegui and Menjívar FAMILY IMMIGRATION POLICY 33

© 2015 The Authors

Law & Policy © 2015 The University of Denver/Colorado Seminary