{"id":697,"date":"2009-04-17T07:45:22","date_gmt":"2009-04-17T13:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/crawler\/?p=697"},"modified":"2009-04-15T07:51:34","modified_gmt":"2009-04-15T13:51:34","slug":"1-in-10-texas-kids-has-an-undocumented-parent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/2009\/04\/17\/1-in-10-texas-kids-has-an-undocumented-parent\/","title":{"rendered":"1 in 10 Texas kids has an undocumented parent"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Flags\"<\/a>The Houston Chronicle <\/a>ran a front page story earlier this week about how new numbers from the Pew Center indicate a shift in immigrant demographics. Nearly one in ten Texas children has an undocumented parent, while 73% of the children of illegal immigrants are U.S.-born citizens.<\/p>\n

The Chronicle<\/a> reports:<\/p>\n

\n

The Pew Hispanic Center released a report Tuesday estimating that about 73 percent of the children of illegal immigrant parents were U.S.-born citizens in 2008, up from roughly 63 percent in 2003. During that time frame, the estimated number of children born in the U.S. to undocumented parents increased from 2.7 million to 4 million. The report estimates that at least one in 10 Texas school children has a parent in the country illegally.<\/p>\n

Pew\u2019s estimates were based largely on March 2008 Census Bureau survey data, which was adjusted to account for census undercounting and legal status.<\/p>\n

The report\u2019s findings highlight an emotional issue in the immigration debate: mixed status families of undocumented parents and U.S.-born children. High-profile immigration enforcement raids across the country in recent years have generated stories of American schoolchildren coming home to find out their parents had been picked up by immigration officials.<\/p>\n

The demographic shift will have significant implications through the summer as the immigration reform debate heats back up. Last week, the Obama administration indicated it was gearing up to tackle reform, including creating a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The sociological commentary…<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThese are American citizens, and we\u2019re rounding up and deporting their parents,\u201d said Rice University sociologist Stephen Klineberg, calling the overall immigration strategy \u201ctotally bankrupt,\u201d and in need of repair.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Sociologist Katherine Donato elaborates…<\/p>\n

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Vanderbilt Sociology Professor Katharine M. Donato said the Pew Center\u2019s findings highlight a marked shift in illegal immigration patterns, which in turn have changed the demographics of the nation\u2019s undocumented population.<\/p>\n

Donato said the U.S. immigration system used to be largely cyclical, with workers \u2014 legal and undocumented \u2014 returning to their home countries on a regular basis, until the massive buildup of agents and infrastructure<\/span>along the Southwest border in early 1990s.<\/p>\n

Facing more dangerous treks and steeper smuggling fees, many illegal immigrants opted instead to bring their families to the U.S. and settle in here, which accounts for the growth in the share of births in the U.S., she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Houston Chronicle ran a front page story earlier this week about how new numbers from the Pew Center indicate a shift in immigrant demographics. Nearly one in ten Texas children has an undocumented parent, while 73% of the children of illegal immigrants are U.S.-born citizens. The Chronicle reports: The Pew Hispanic Center released a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39074],"tags":[35,89,122,39115,100],"class_list":["post-697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sightings","tag-children","tag-immigration","tag-lifecourse","tag-politics","tag-youth"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":699,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697\/revisions\/699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}