Today, 18 million Hispanic children live in the United States, and they account for one quarter of all children. An overwhelming majority (94 percent) of Latino children were born in the United States. However, that is not the case for their parents. In fact, about half of Latino children have at least one parent who was born in another country, some of whom are not authorized to live in the United States. As the nation continues to engage in crucial discourse over the future of immigration policy, it is important to acknowledge the extent to which these policies will affect the well-being of the vast number of children whose parents may be at risk of deportation.

In this brief, we draw on publicly available information from several data sources to estimate the proportion of U.S. Latino children who have at least one parent who is an unauthorized immigrant. Our conclusion: about one quarter—25 to 28 percent—of all Latino children in the United States have an unauthorized immigrant parent.

KJ