Living Together, Living Apart

Immigration reform remains one of the most contentious issues in the United States today. For mixed status families—families that include both citizens and noncitizens—this is more than a political issue: it’s a deeply personal one. Undocumented family members and legal residents lack the rights and benefits of their family members who are US citizens, while family members and legal residents sometimes have their rights compromised by punitive immigration policies based on a strict "citizen/noncitizen" dichotomy.

This collection of personal narratives and academic essays is the first to focus on the daily lives and experiences, as well as the broader social contexts, for mixed status families in the contemporary United States. Threats of raids, deportation, incarceration, and detention loom large over these families. At the same time, their lives are characterized by the resilience, perseverance, and resourcefulness necessary to maintain strong family bonds, both within the United States and across national boundaries.

April Schueths is assistant professor of sociology at Georgia Southern University and a licensed social worker. Jodie Lawston is associate professor of women's studies at California State University, San Marcos. She is the author of Sisters Outside: Radical Activists Working for Women Prisoners and coeditor of Razor Wire Women: Prisoners, Activists, Scholars and Artists.

Epigraph: The Freedom to Move / Lisa Speicher Muñoz
Foreword / Mary Romero

Introduction: Living Together, Living Apart: Mixed-Status Families and US Immigration Policy / April M. Schueths and Jodie M. Lawston

Part One | Living Together, Living Apart: Stories of Separation
1. The Purpose of My Trip to Tijuana / Giselle Stern Hernández
2. Life and Love outside the Citizenship Binary: The Lived Experiences of Mixed-Status Couples in the United States / April M. Schueths
3. Transnational Mixed-Status Families: Critical Challenges in Cross-Border Relationships over Time / Rachel M. Hershberg and M. Brinton Lykes
4. Dependents of the State: Navigating the Immigration and Child Welfare Apparatus at the San Diego–Tijuana Border / Naomi Glenn-Levin Rodriguez
5. “We Thought We Had a Future”: Adversity and Resilience in Mixed-Status Families / Martha I. Zapata Roblyer and Joseph G. Grzywacz
6. Being Mixed-Status / Sheryl Tuliao Silva and Eric O. Silva

Part Two | Experiences of Inequality: Legal Status and Family Well-Being
7. Voice of an American-Mexican / Neida Soto Arrington
8. Mixed-Status Families in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas: Health Disparities along the US-Mexico Border / Heide Castañeda
9. “Someday I’m Going to Have Papers!” (¡Algún Día Yo Voy a Tener Papeles!): Mixed-Status Families in the Rural South / Scott Beck and Alma Stevenson
10. The Green Card Waiting Game: U Visa Holders, Mixed-Status Famlies, and Marginal Membership / Sarah Morando Lakhani
11. “El Otro Lado” (The Other Side) / Eva Betancourt

Part III. The Public Face of Illegal: Confronting Legal Institutions and the Media
12. MIXED-UP / Carlos-Manuel
13. Constructing Mixed-Status Families in Public Discourse / Eric O. Silva
14. Qualifying Relatives: US Immigration Policies and Family Reunification or Deunification? / Connie Oxford
15. From Driving to Deportation: Experiences of Mixed-Status Immigrant Families under “Secure Communities” / Diana M. Guelespe
16 Dynamics and Ramifications of US Immigration and Visa Policies: Nepali Transnational Workers, Families, and Children in the United States / Shobha Hamal Gurung
17. Bringing Pedro Home / Emily Guzman
18. My Path to Happiness / Luis A. HernÁndez

Contributors
Index