Abstract Over the past thirty-five years, federal immigration policy has brightened the boundaries of the category of undocumented status. For undocumented young people who move into adulthood, the predominance of immigration status to their everyday experiences and social position has been amplified. This process of trying to continue schooling, find work, and participate in public life has become synonymous with a process of learning to be “illegal.” This essay argues that despite known variations in undocumented youths by race, place, and educational history, undocumented status has become what Everett Hughes called a “master status.” The uniform set of immigration status-based exclusions overwhelms the impact of other statuses to create a socially significant divide. The rise, fall, and survival of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, a policy offering qualified youths a temporary semilegal status, have underlined how closely access and rights hew to the contours of contemporary immigration policy.

中文翻译：

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移民子女的法律地位划分

摘要 在过去的三十五年中，联邦移民政策已经扩大了无证身份类别的界限。对于进入成年期的无证年轻人来说，移民身份在他们的日常经历和社会地位中的主导地位被放大了。这种试图继续上学、找工作和参与公共生活的过程已成为学习“非法”过程的代名词。这篇文章认为，尽管已知无证青年在种族、地点和教育历史方面存在差异，但无证身份已成为埃弗雷特休斯所说的“主人身份”。统一的基于移民身份的排除措施压倒了其他身份的影响，从而产生了具有重大社会意义的鸿沟。起起落落，