The story of child wellbeing along the U.S.–Mexico border goes beyond the challenges faced by recent immigrants. The U.S. side of the border is also home to almost two million children, the great majority of whom are U.S. citizens. Overall, these border-area children are growing up in neighborhoods with high levels of segregation and limited resources to promote their health, wellbeing and future success. While the plight of migrant families and the horrors of the immigration enforcement and detention system require immediate response from policymakers, communities, advocates and researchers, the hardships facing border-area children deserve our attention, too.
This report documents the neighborhood conditions experienced by children who live along the U.S.–Mexico border, defining the border area as 44 U.S. counties in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. Using the Child Opportunity Index 3.0-2023, it examines neighborhood opportunity in border and non-border regions of the U.S., racial/ethnic inequities in neighborhood opportunity and how those differences in opportunity relate to two key life outcomes: economic mobility and life expectancy.
Key findings
- Overall, U.S. children along the border live in neighborhoods with substantially lower opportunity than those living elsewhere in the U.S. (Child Opportunity Scores of 29 versus 51), although neighborhood opportunity varies substantially between and within border states.
- Of all border-area children, those along the Texas border experience the lowest neighborhood opportunity (Child Opportunity Score of 11), along with the greatest difference in opportunity between the state’s border and non-border area. Texas is also home to the plurality (42%) of border-area children—about 814,000—so the widespread low opportunity there is especially notable.
- Border-area children in San Diego County, CA and in neighborhoods around Tucson, AZ generally experience much higher levels of opportunity.
- Racial/ethnic segregation and inequities between border neighborhoods are pervasive. Along the border, Hispanic children live in neighborhoods with a Child Opportunity Score 48 points lower than that of White children; in non-border areas, the Hispanic-White child opportunity gap is 26 points. Racial/ethnic inequities in neighborhood opportunity at the border cannot be fully explained by family poverty status.
- The inequity in conditions that border-area children encounter in their neighborhoods is so vast that we can think of the area as Five Borders with markedly different resources and conditions for healthy development and racial/ethnic makeups. The child population in the "Very Low-Opportunity Border" is 90% Hispanic and 6% White; in contrast, the child population in the "Very High-Opportunity Border" is 24% Hispanic and 46% White.
- These differences in neighborhood opportunity can have lifelong effects, although border area-children—particularly Hispanic children—exhibit resiliency. In most border states, economic mobility is lower in border than in non-border regions, although in neighborhoods of lower to moderate opportunity, economic mobility is the same or greater in Hispanic children’s neighborhoods than in White children’s neighborhoods.
- Border-area children also live in neighborhoods with slightly longer life expectancy than those of children living farther from the border, and life expectancy in the typical Hispanic child’s low-opportunity neighborhood is actually longer than in the typical White child’s low-opportunity neighborhood, perhaps because of the much higher concentration of Hispanic residents and the health benefits associated with the Hispanic Health Paradox.
- Recent policy changes and investments favor the immigration enforcement and detention system, while reducing programs that offer food assistance, health insurance, and environmental protection to border area communities.
- These misguided policy choices are likely to have severe detrimental effects and work against building true border security: safe and healthy children, families and communities.
A call to action
The report concludes with an examination of the mis-investment in federal funding along the border and its implications for child health and wellbeing. We argue that sound federal policy for the border region should prioritize improving neighborhood conditions and strengthening existing protective factors. Expanded eligibility for anti-poverty programs, expanded health insurance coverage, protections against climate change and additional funding for early childhood education and community development would all benefit border-area children. Sadly, recent federal policy has turned in the other direction.
In recent years, leading organizations of scholars, practitioners and advocates have condemned the harms of punitive immigration enforcement, family separation and child detention on child health and wellbeing. We second these calls—while asking experts and organizations dedicated to protecting child health and wellbeing to do more. Collectively, we must denounce the harsh conditions, including low neighborhood opportunity, that many U.S. children experience along the border, and we must recommend investments in true border security for children: investments to help border families and communities raise healthy children and enhance their health, education and economic prospects as adults.
