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  5. Split Families and the Future of Children: Immigration Enforcement and Foster Care Placements

Split Families and the Future of Children: Immigration Enforcement and Foster Care Placements

  • Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes
  • Esther Arenas-Arroyo
AEA Papers and Proceedings
vol. 108, May 2018
(pp. 368-72)
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Abstract

Tougher immigration enforcement has been responsible for approximately 1.8 million deportations between 2009 and 2013 alone. Children enter the foster care system when their parents are apprehended, deported, and unable to care for them. We find that the average increase in interior immigration enforcement over the 2001 through 2015 period contributed to raising the share of Hispanic children entering foster care between 15 and 21 percent. Given the revival of police-based immigration enforcement by President Donald Trump, further analyses of its consequences on families are well warranted.

Citation

Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina, and Esther Arenas-Arroyo. 2018. "Split Families and the Future of Children: Immigration Enforcement and Foster Care Placements." AEA Papers and Proceedings, 108: 368-72. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20181104

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • J12 Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse
  • J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
  • J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
  • J18 Demographic Economics: Public Policy