Examines the prevalence in the United States of immigrant families of mixed status and the challenges posed by such families for achieving recent welfare and illegal-immigration reforms. A mixed status family is one in which at least one parent is a non-citizen, and at least one child is a citizen. Policies that help or hinder non-citizens also affect the citizen children who live in the great majority of immigrant families. Research indicates that mixed-status families are more likely to be poor. They also account for a substantial share of children without health insurance. Moreover, the presence of so many citizens in families with non-citizens suggests that recent reforms need to be examined in terms of both alien rights and citizen rights. One effect of welfare reform and, to a lesser extent, illegal-immigration reform, has been to treat citizen children in mixed-status families as second-class citizens. An equitable remedy would be to restore non-citizens to eligibility to federal benefits.
