"Mixed-status Families" -- A House Divided

There are an estimated 400,000 households in which some persons are undocumented and others are here legally. These are called "mix-status families" and have their own sets of problems. Often these have to deal with the diverging paths siblings take in adjusting to American society. The undocumented off-springs are denied the full opportunities of education and employment and live in fear of being caught and returned to a country totally unfamiliar to them. Their legal brothers and sisters, by contrast, have all the benefits of citizenship and are unmotivated to take them.. Ironically, however, the undocumented children often are more appreciative of what the sacrifices parents made in bringing them to this country and so work harder to assimilated. The New York Times' Remade in America series tells one such story of an Ecudorean family in Queens, NY.