Immigrants’ documentation status has become an important and rampant source of inequity inthe United States. Prior studies show that lacking a lawful documentation status is correlated
with negative mental health outcomes, lower socioeconomic status, and a plethora of other
unfavorable social conditions. This dissertation offers three distinct, important studies that
expand the knowledge base about the extent to which documentation status is associated with a
variety of outcomes at different stages of the life course. My first study focuses on children. I
examine the extent to which a policy that expanded healthcare access for undocumented children
in California impacted the healthcare coverage and annual doctor visits of Latinx children. This
chapter uses multiple cross sections of the California Health Interview Survey. I found that this
policy reduced the probability of being uninsured and of having unstable healthcare among
Latinx children. The second study focuses on middle and older adults and captures an oftenoverlooked aspect about immigrants’ documentation status- the fact that it is a dynamic variable.
I found that Latinx immigrants who recently gained their green card experienced quicker
declines in their self-reported health regardless of previous exposure to an unauthorized
immigration status. The last chapter focuses on the wealth of middle and older adults across their
life course to investigate the extent to which immigration status composition in groups can
account for racial/ethnic wealth inequality. I found that immigrants’ documentation status holds
different explanatory power for wealth gaps depending on the racial ethnic group at hand. I also
find that among immigrants in a precarious documentation status, the relationship between age
and wealth is weaker. Together, these three studies build upon existing research about immigrant
incorporation, race/ethnicity, and immigrant health. I provide three examples of how depending
on the independent variable of interest immigrants’ documentation status can be studied from
different perspectives and with distinct operationalizations. My dissertation offers an important
insight: that both race/ethnicity and documentation status need to be considered in tandem in
future sociological studies. Population exposures to an undocumented status whether it is
previous or contemporary will leave an important imprint on the experiences of inequality
among the Latinx community in the United States.