There are approximately eleven million undocumented people living in the United States, and most of them have U.S. citizen family members. There is a common perception that marriage to a U.S. citizen puts undocumented immigrants on a quick and easy path to U.S. citizenship. But for people who have entered the U.S. unlawfully and live here without papers, the line to legal status is neither short nor easy, even for those with U.S. citizen spouses. Becoming Legal: Immigration Law and Mixed Status Families follows mixed status couples down the long and bumpy road of immigration processing. It explores how they navigate every step along the way, from the decision to undertake legalization, to the immigration interview in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, to the effort to put together a case of "extreme hardship" so that the undocumented family member can return. Author Ruth Gomberg-Munoz also discusses families' efforts to rebuild their lives in the aftermath of immigration processing-both for those who are successful and those who are not.
Becoming Legal provides rare insights into U.S. immigration processing and the ways in which immigration policies affect undocumented people, lawful immigrants, and U.S. citizens alike. It will also help students more fully understand central questions in U.S. immigration debates, such as: Why don't undocumented people wait their turn to enter the U.S. legally? Why don't they legalize their status when they have U.S. citizen relatives? And, what are the relationships between undocumented people and U.S. citizens in the current period?
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