Split Families and the Future of Children: Immigration Enforcement and Foster Care Placements

Abstract

Tougher immigration enforcement has been responsible for approximately 1.8 million deportations between 2009 and 2013 alone. Children enter the foster care system when their parents are apprehended, deported, and unable to care for them. We find that the average increase in interior immigration enforcement over the 2001 through 2015 period contributed to raising the share of Hispanic children entering foster care between 15 and 21 percent. Given the revival of police-based immigration enforcement by President Donald Trump, further analyses of its consequences on families are well warranted.