I spend a lot of time analyzing immigration enforcement data. These data come from public records requests, from government systems, from whatever sources we can get our hands on to understand what’s actually happening in the immigration system. But there are crucial issues that the federal government simply doesn’t collect data on, or won’t release publicly. Mixed-status families are one of these critical blind spots.
Mixed-status couples—where one person is a US citizen and their spouse or partner is an immigrant facing potential deportation—have been hit especially hard under the current administration’s mass deportation efforts. Things have gotten so dire that some couples are choosing to self-deport, leaving families separated by international borders. In some cases, US citizens are actually moving abroad with their spouses, living in a state of exile, because there’s no path to legalization even though they’re married to an American citizen. See Anna Lekas Miller’s recent article for two stories close to my heart and Pablo Manríquez’s breaking story of Julie Moreno for Migrant Insider.
Because there’s so little data on this, Ashley DeAzevedo from American Families United, the AFU leadership team, and I worked together to survey AFU members and other mixed-status couples. We wanted to understand what people are actually facing right now, so we surveyed 240 respondents, including a large number of AFU’s members. This is really the first detailed look at data on mixed-status couples. Join us this Thursday at 1:00 PM EST to see never-before-released data and hear from Amanda, a woman of deep faith and conviction, whose family has been torn apart by our immigration system.
What: Virtual event sharing new survey data on mixed-status families and Amanda’s story
When: Thursday, December 11th, at 1:00 PM Eastern time
Where: Online (registration required)
Who: Hosted by American Families United; reporters are welcome.
This will be valuable for anyone covering immigration. We’ll be putting out a public report as well. I hope you can make it.