Undocumented and Mixed-Status Latinx Families: Sociopolitical Considerations for Systemic Practice

ABSTRACT

Millions of mixed-status Latinx immigrant families in the United States are facing extreme stress and fear of family separation stemming from harsh immigration enforcement practices. In this paper, we suggest that true systemic practice involves knowledge and critical engagement with the broader contexts of families’ lives. To this end, we review the history of immigration policy that created today’s sociopolitical climate and help therapists situate themselves within this larger context. We then offer additional practice considerations for family therapy with mixed-status families, ranging from pre-intake concerns to community and advocacy work. Our hope is that therapists will use the areas of this paper that best fit their own practices and contexts, with the shared goal of providing ethical and just services to undocumented and mixed-status Latinx immigrant families.

KEYWORDS:

• Latinx immigrant families
• documentation status
• undocumented
• mixed-status families
• immigration policy
• immigration history
• socio-political climate
• systemic family therapy

Notes

¹ Based in recent movements toward inclusion and non-binary thinking, scholars have proposed the use of Latinx as a gender-neutral term in lieu of Latino, which is inherently masculine, or Latin@ which may reinforce a gender-binary (see Cooper et al., 2019). In this paper, Latinx is used, in both singular and plural contexts, to acknowledge a continuum of genders represented within those of Latin American origin. In practice, however, we ask each client what language they identify with and mirror this language in the therapy room.

² Undocumented refers to persons living in the US without legal authorization. Some scholars have proposed underdocumented as a more accurate term to reflect that many unauthorized immigrants have documents that may be expired, incorrect, or insufficient.

³ Not unlike gender, documentation status rarely exists on a binary. As such, many immigrant families are likely to house members of many different documentation statuses, ranging from undocumented to citizens. The term mixed-status attempts to capture this complexity.

⁴ DREAMer is a colloquial term used to refer to those who would have been eligible for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act proposed by Congress in 2001. Although the DREAM Act never passed, some of its goals and intentions were reflected within DACA.