Karen Castellon
CHS 113B
Professor Riggs
March 23, 2014

The Child and the Parent

After walking for days a group of 21 men ended being stranded in a desert with no return. These men left families behind in search for a better future, but after walking for many days they began to blame everyone for making the decision to cross the Devil’s Highway (Urea). Hispanics make up about half of the United States population. People from Latin America make a decision to migrate to the United States because they want to search for better employment and in general, for a better way of living than of the one they originally had.
Of these people that migrate to the United States 1 in 10 of them becomes a mixed family, which is a household that contains U.S born children and undocumented parents. The United States government should address these mixed families and in particular the U.S citizen born children of these families because, many of these children live in poor households, fear that their parents will be deported one day, and are not raised with the proper resources that this country has to offer.
When a child is growing up they need care and attention. Most of this attention comes from the parent or guardian. Like I said before undocumented people come to this country to make a difference in their life, however one cannot predict what the future has to hold which then eventually leads to the formation of new families.
Unfortunately, for the children born to undocumented parents, they are raised without the most essential resources. The poor living conditions that these families live under can have great influence for the children of the family, because it constrains them from thinking about their plans for the future and puts these children under the outlook that life is about surviving rather than about having dreams and aspirations. As for an undocumented parent the employment available for them is not enough to be able to sustain a family.
This government should take action and at least give a little hope for these families. I acknowledge that most of the congressmen and women have families, so for a better understanding of the problem they should imagine themselves living in the conditions that an undocumented family would live under rather than just noting the effects that this situation has on this country.
Undocumented people have every right to start a family when they come to this country. These people are not from another planet, they are humans that feel, eat, and breathe. The United States is a country in which it believes that a person has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. When undocumented people migrate to the United States they come with the idea of making a difference in their life, but because of their illegal status these people spend their days working with below minimum wage jobs and they are susceptible to being deported at any moment (Furman). For example, Latino household fathers face many difficulties and stress while raising a family. These men are at risk because of social problems, economic hardships, and emotional health problems. To make matters worse they are categorized as terrorizing criminals that come this country to cause violence, when in reality an undocumented person faces hardships even before arriving to the United States.
As for the effects that the status of undocumented parents has on their citizen born children there is not enough data to prove that this is a serious matter. Although this is true we can see that there are currently more than four million children of undocumented parents that are currently living in poor households. Of these children there are also ones who are not receiving the child support and resources that the U.S government has to offer. The parents of these children fear that giving personal information when applying for support will increase their chances of being deported because of their undocumented status. In an article that