Safety Net Barriers Add to Child Poverty in Immigrant Families

NASHVILLE — Jacqueline Acevedo is a shy seventh grader who spends long hours at the Baptist church where her father serves as a volunteer pastor after earning a scant wage from his day job selling bread. Gabriel Garcia is a talkative 10-year-old whose mother is a chemist but drives for Uber and whose father squeezes grocery costs by posting receipts on the refrigerator door. Although the families differ greatly — Jacqueline’s parents are unauthorized Salvadoran immigrants with little education, while Gabriel’s left rewarding professions in Venezuela and won legal asylum in the United States — the Nashville-area youths have two…