Enriquez SOCIAL SCIENCE | EMIGRATION & IMMIGRATION Of Love and Papers explores how immigration policies are fundamentally reshaping Latino families. Drawing on interviews with undocumented young adults, Enriquez investigates how immigration status creeps into the most personal aspects of every- Of Papers and Love Of and day life, intersecting with gender to constrain dating, marriage, and parenting. She Love Papers illustrates how the imprint of illegality remains, even upon obtaining DACA or perma- nent residency. Interweaving the perspectives of US citizen romantic partners and children, she exposes the multigenerational punishment that limits the upward mobility of Latino families. Of Love and Papers sparks an intimate understanding of contemporary US immigration policies and their enduring consequences for immigrant families. “By highlighting the ways US immigration policies shape the experiences of roman- tic love, intimacy, and family formation, Enriquez’s meticulous research calls attention to the enduring injurious effects on undocumented and DACAmented young adults, How Immigration Policy Affects Romance and Family and Romance Affects Policy Immigration How and on their citizen spouses and children. An innovative and sobering account of the far-reaching consequences of our punishing immigration policies. Timely and compel- ling.” PIERRETTE HONDAGNEU-SOTELO, Florence Everline Professor of Sociology, University of Southern California “In an engaging and methodologically rigorous narrative, Enriquez sheds novel light on the courtship and dating phase of family formation among undocumented and/or mixed status Mexican immigrant families. Undeniably, it will be of central interest to anyone who cares about immigrants and their families.” CECILIA MENJÍVAR, Profes- sor of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles LAURA E. ENRIQUEZ is Assistant Professor of Chicano/Latino Studies at the Univer- sity of California, Irvine. How Immigration Policy Affects UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Romance and Family www.ucpress.edu | www.luminosoa.org A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program for monographs. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. Cover illustration: Kristy Sandoval, 2019 Laura E. Enriquez Luminos is the Open Access monograph publishing program from UC Press. Luminos provides a framework for preserving and reinvigorating monograph publishing for the future and increases the reach and visibility of important scholarly work. Titles published in the UC Press Luminos model are published with the same high standards for selection, peer review, production, and marketing as those in our traditional program. www.luminosoa.org Of Love and Papers Of Love and Papers How Immigration Policy Affects Romance and Family Laura E. Enriquez UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS University of California Press Oakland, California © 2020 by Laura E. Enriquez This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND license. To view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses. Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress. Suggested citation: Enriquez, L. E. Of Love and Papers: How Immigration Policy Affects Romance and Family. Oakland: University of California Press, 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/luminos.88 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Enriquez, Laura E., 1986- author. Title: Of love and papers : how immigration policy affects romance and family / Laura E. Enriquez. Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019052048 (print) | LCCN 2019052049 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520344358 (paperback) | ISBN 9780520975484 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Man-woman relationships—United States—Case studies. | Illegal aliens—Family relationships—United States—Case studies. | Hispanic Americans—Family relationships—United States—Case studies. United States—Emigration and immigration—Government policy. Classification: LCC HQ801 E57 2020 (print) | LCC HQ801 (ebook) | DDC 306.70973—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019052048 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019052049 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents List of Tables vii Acknowledgments ix Chapter 1. Forming Families in a Context of Illegality 1 Chapter 2. “It’s Because He Wants Papers”: Choosing a Romantic Partner 23 Chapter 3. “You Feel a Little Bit Less”: Gendered Illegality and Desirability When Dating 45 Chapter 4. “It Affects Us, Our Future”: Negotiating Illegality as a Mixed-Status Couple 69 Chapter 5. “It Was Time to Take That Step”: Pursuing Legalization through Marriage 90 Chapter 6. “It’s a Constant Struggle”: Becoming and Being Parents 115 Chapter 7. “I Can’t Offer Them What Other People Could”: Multigenerational Punishment of Citizen Children 135 Chapter 8. Immigration Policy and the Future of Latino Families 157 Appendix A. Reflections on Methods and Positionality 171 Appendix B. Demographic Characteristics of Study Participants 179 Notes 189 References 201 Index 221 Tables 1.1 Demographic characteristics of interview participants 19 3.1 Employed participants’ average annual income, weekly hours worked, and hourly pay (2011–2012) 49 3.2 Employed DACA recipients’ average annual income, weekly hours worked, and hourly pay (2014–2015) 64 a.1 Sampling strategy for undocumented interview participants (2011–2012) 173 b.1 Demographic characteristics of undocumented participants 181 b.2 Family characteristics of undocumented participants 183 b.3 Demographic characteristics of formerly undocumented participants 183 b.4 Family characteristics of formerly undocumented participants 185 b.5 Demographic characteristics of romantic partners interviewed 186 vii Acknowledgments This book would not have been possible without the people who were willing to share their stories with me. I am grateful that they trusted me with the intimate details of their lives and had faith that I could do justice to their stories. I hope their words resonate with readers and move us to recognize and resist the cascad- ing consequences of exclusionary immigration policy. I received crucial financial support at various stages. A fellowship from the Social Science Research Council’s Dissertation Proposal Development Pro- gram allowed me to conduct a pilot study. Led by Katharine Donato and Donna Gabaccia, this interdisciplinary group provided a space to flesh out the project and center the role of gender. Data collection was generously funded by research grants from the National Science Foundation (award no. 1202634), the University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States, and the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. Predoctoral and dissertation fellowships from the Ford Foundation and UCLA enabled me to immerse myself in the first wave of the study. The second wave was conducted during my tenure as a UCI Chancellor’s ADVANCE Postdoctoral Fellow. Funds from the UCI Libraries and UCI School of Social Sciences aided open-access publication. Several research assistants helped me complete this project. Tanya Sanabria helped conduct the second wave of interviews. Miguel Carvente, Lizette Ceja, Rosemary Gomez, Carlos Salinas, Daisy Vazquez Vera, and Amy Yu served as interviewers and research assistants. Diego Sepúlveda and Diana Soto-Vazquez provided additional support. I am fortunate to have been guided by thoughtful and caring mentors. Gilda Ochoa introduced me to research and a way of doing sociology that centers ix x Acknowledgments communities. Her early lessons and continued advice over the past 15 years have shaped who I am as a scholar and wound their way into this book. Vilma Ortiz has supported me and my vision since my first day of graduate school, giving me the space to run with my ideas (and helping wrangle them in). Her invaluable advice has seen me through every stage of this project and guided me in carving out a space for myself in academia. Katharine Donato took me under her wing as I began this project and helped shape its direction. Her unwavering support and generosity have been critical to my professional development. This book has been a long time in the making, and colleagues have supported its development at various stages. At UCLA, Leisy Abrego, Abigail Saguy, and Min Zhou provided critical support as members of my dissertation committee and helped me refine my thinking. William Rosales and Michael Stambolis- Ruhstorfer have supported my work since our first days of graduate school, gen- erously reading drafts and allowing me to bounce ideas off them. Vilma Ortiz established a research group for her graduate students; this group of Latina schol- ars provided the friendship and critical feedback that allowed me and this project to thrive: Karina Chavarria, Deisy Del Real, Rocio Garcia, Celia Lacayo, Mirian Martinez-Aranda, Erica Morales, Laura Orrico, Casandra Salgado, Ariana Valle, Irene Vega, and Sylvia Zamora. Finally, the women from the SSRC dissertation proposal workshop informed my early thinking, and several have continued their support through the years, including Claudia Lopez, Cheryl Llewellyn, Sarah DeMott, Maria Hwang, and Alison Kolodzy. My colleagues at UCI have been unwavering supporters. My dean, Bill Maurer, and department chairs, Vicki Ruiz and Louis DeSipio, have ensured that I always have the resources needed to realize my academic visions. Rubén Rumbaut enthu-