Immigration Article of the Day: Immigration Enforcement, Policing, and Race by David Hausman and Marcel Roman

Immigration Enforcement, Policing, and Race by David Hausman and Marcel Roman

Abstract

When does immigration enforcement lead to racially disparate policing? We address this question with two studies. First, evaluating the staggered onset of Secure Communities and sanctuary policies, we study the effect of immigration enforcement intensity on traffic stops. We find no evidence that increased enforcement leads to more traffic stops of Latino drivers or that decreased enforcement reduces non-citizen criminal arrests. However, neither policy directly engages local police. Our second study examines a 2014 Texas state police initiative, Operation Strong Safety (OSS), which increased border enforcement via traffic stops in two border counties. We find that OSS, which increased stops in two overwhelming Latino counties, mechanically led to more stops of Latino drivers statewide, while decreasing statewide citation and contraband seizure rates and providing no public safety benefits. Our results show that institutional contexts shape the relationship between immigration enforcement policies and racially disparate policing.