Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on America’s Children
METHODOLOGY The study was conducted in a short time frame – about four months from April through July 2007 – and is exploratory and preliminary in nature. Site visits were conducted in three communities within two to six months after large-scale worksite raids had taken place. Thus, the study covers only the short- and intermediate-term impact on children and the communities’ responses to the raids. Some findings and hypotheses about potential longer-term effects on children were also explored in the study; however, a comprehensive assessment of longer-term consequences must be left to a follow-up study with a longer time frame. The impact on children who left the country with their parents or other caregivers was beyond the purview of this study. In each site, information was obtained directly from immigrants who were arrested, their spouses, and other family members. Immigrant community leaders, employers, and public and private agency staff who provided relief following the raids were also interviewed. Semistructured interview guides were used to collect standardized information from site to site and among respondents; these guides also allowed for open-ended discussions with respondents. Data on the number of children directly affected were collected, when possible, from each site. National figures on children of undocumented immigrants and their characteristics were obtained using data from the March 2005 U.S. Current Population Survey (CPS), enhanced by Urban Institute assignments of legal status to noncitizens in the survey. The methodology is described in more detail in Appendix 1 at the end of this report. The three study sites were all selected based on large-scale ICE worksite enforcement actions within six months before the site visits. The raids were conducted in manufacturing plants that are major employers. The sites were similar in size and included a substantial number of Latino immigrants, but the demographics of Latino populations differed across the locales, as did their residential and employment patterns. Although the report focuses on sites where virtually all of the arrested immigrants were from Latin America, the findings may also be applicable to children with undocumented parents from other regions of the world.11 Appendix 2 describes the demographic, economic, and social characteristics of each of the three study sites in more detail.
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