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NEW DATA ANALYSIS SHOWS

28 million people, including nearly 20 million Latinos, are at risk of family separation in 2025
“At least 5.1 million U.S. citizen children under age 18 live with at least one undocumented household member."

VERSIÓN EN ESPAÑOL

 

Based on U.S. governmental data, FWD.us projects that nearly 28.2 million U.S. residents, including 19.5 million Latinos, as of the start of 2025, will live in a mixed-status or undocumented household. This amounts to about 1 in 12 total U.S. residents, and nearly 1 in 3 Latinos, at risk of deportation or family separation.1

Nearly four decades after Congress last passed meaningful and positive immigration reform, and as threats of mass deportation accumulate, more mixed-status and undocumented families than ever face higher uncertainty about whether they could be separated from their loved ones or be deported.

Some 11.3 million U.S. citizens, and an additional 2.4 million lawful permanent residents (LPR) and nonimmigrant (temporary) visa holders, live in “mixed-status” households alongside an estimated 10.1 million undocumented individuals.

19.5 million Latino, Hispanic U.S. residents are either undocumented or live in a mixed-status family.

A mixed-status household has at least one undocumented person (including those with protections such as Temporary Protected Status (TPS), Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), or other immigration protections) living with at least one person who is a U.S. citizen, green card holder, or other lawful temporary immigrant. Additionally, some 4.4 million undocumented individuals do not live in a mixed-status family.

California, Texas, Florida, and New York have some of the highest numbers of individuals living in mixed-status or undocumented households; more than half (53%) of individuals in mixed-status or undocumented households nationwide live in these four states.

Meanwhile, some 10% of or more of all residents in California, Texas, Florida, Nevada, New Jersey, and Maryland live in a mixed-status or undocumented household.

More than two-thirds (69%) of undocumented individuals and their family members who are at risk of deportation or family separation are Hispanic. An estimated 19.5 million Latino or Hispanic U.S. residents, or nearly one-third of the total U.S. Hispanic population, are either undocumented or live in a mixed-status family with an undocumented Hispanic individual.

At least 5.1 million U.S. citizen children under age 18, both Hispanic and non-Hispanic, live with at least one undocumented household member. And as many as 6.1 million U.S. citizen adults, both Hispanic and non-Hispanic, live with at least one undocumented immigrant in their household. Nearly two-thirds of these adults (68%) are Gen Z or Millennials, born 1981 or later. More than 1.1 million U.S. citizen adults have a spouse who is undocumented.

“Fixing our failed immigration system is personal for millions of Americans living in mixed-status families."

Even as Congress has maintained family unity as a core principle in immigration policy for decades, many undocumented spouses and parents of U.S. citizens that have lived in the U.S. for many years cannot adjust their status to become green card holders due to inadmissibility bars. These limitations of current immigration law force families to remain in varied and vulnerable immigration statuses, living under the threat of separation, and forcing loved ones to live with the constant anxiety that their mom, dad, sister, brother, wife, or husband could be deported at a moment’s notice.

At the same time, hundreds of thousands of households in the U.S. are entirely undocumented, with nearly half (48%) of members of undocumented households having entered the U.S. since 2020. Many of these household members currently maintain limited immigration protections, including TPS, paroled admission, or waiting for a decision on an asylum claim. But many of these protections are discretionary and temporary, and could be allowed to expire or be removed by a future administration, leaving this population fully undocumented and vulnerable to deportation.

Fixing our failed immigration system is personal for millions of Americans living in mixed-status families. As threats of mass deportations sharpen, millions of U.S. citizens are living daily with uncertainty over whether their loved ones will be deported and separated from their families. It is well past time for Congress to deliver relief to American families.

Phillip Connor

Senior Demographer

phillip@fwd.us

Notes

  1. Estimates are upward adjustments by nationality and immigrant status group through January 2025, based on migration inflow trends in administrative data from the Department of Homeland Security and the characteristics of recently arrived immigrants from the same countries as found in FWD.us’ 2023 immigrant status assignments in the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 American Community Survey, per this methodology. Latinos, in this report, are considered the same as Hispanics in the 2022 ACS. For consistency with the U.S. Census Bureau ethnicity classifications, the term Hispanic is used for the remainder of this report.
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