Caught Between Rights and Vows: The Negative Impacts of U.S. Spousal Reunification Policies on Mixed-Status, Transnational Families with Low “Importability”

Gina Marie Longo () and Ian Almond
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Gina Marie Longo: Department of Sociology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, USA
Ian Almond: Department of Sociology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, USA

Social Sciences, 2025, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-19

Abstract: This study examines how U.S. immigration policies enact legal violence and multigenerational punishment through the spousal reunification process, particularly in mixed-status, transnational families. Building on the concept of “deportability,” we introduce “importability” to describe a beneficiary’s potential to secure permanent residency, which varies according to social markers such as race, gender, and region of origin. Drawing from a content analysis of threads on the Immigration Pathways (IP) web forum, we analyze discussions among U.S. citizen petitioners navigating marriage-based green card applications, with a focus on experiences involving administrative processing (AP) (i.e., marriage fraud investigations). Our findings show that couples who do not align with the state’s conception of “proper” family—particularly U.S. citizen women petitioning for Black African partners—face intensified scrutiny, long delays, and burdensome requirements, including DNA tests and surveillance. These bureaucratic obstacles produce prolonged family separation, financial strain, and diminished sense of belonging, especially for children in single-parent households. Through the lens of “importability,” we reveal how legal violence and multigenerational punishment of immigration policies on mixed-status families beyond deportation threats, functioning as a gatekeeping mechanism that disproportionately affects marginalized families. This research highlights the understudied consequences of immigration policies on citizen petitioners and contributes to a broader understanding of inequality in U.S. immigration enforcement.

Keywords: multigenerational punishment; legal violence; citizenship rights; spousal reunification; deportation; marriage fraud (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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