Immigration policy, immigrant detention, and the U.S. jail system

Abstract

Jails, we examine the impact of immigrants being held for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on the conditions in U.S. jails. We find that increases in the number of detainees held for ICE are related to higher noncitizen jailed populations that are not offset by reductions in their citizen counterparts, likely contributing to worse confinement conditions. This is reflected in the higher levels of overcrowding and understaffing, as well as in the longer stays in jail and more physical assaults associated with a larger number of ICE detainees. These findings prove robust to using data on two local interior immigration enforcement programs responsible for the growing number of immigrant detainees in local jails-287(g) agreements and Secure Communities-as instruments to address the endogeneity of the number of ICE detainees with respect to jail conditions. The results are driven by slightly over half of U.S. counties located either along the United States-Mexico border or in states with a large or fast-growing immigrant population.

Federal–local partnerships on immigration law enforcement: Are the policies effective in reducing violent victimization?

“…A new Department of Justice memorandum in 2002 announced that local officials have inherent authority, subject to federal preemption, to make arrests for federal immigration violations (OLC, 2002). Since then, there has been a large expansion of state and local involvement in immigration enforcement (Amuedo‐Dorantes & Lopez, 2022; Kandel, 2016).…”

Prison Labor across the Carceral Continuum

“…98–99), contributes to mass incarceration, and she supports her position by exploring the legal differences between ICE detainees and “regular” non-ICE prisoners. Although the work by detainees in ICE facilities is similar to work done by others incarcerated in U.S. prisons (see Amuedo-Dorantes and Lopez 2022; Lopez 2019), the legality of imprisoned people matters; ICE facilities must ask detainees to “volunteer” in the prison’s work program (p. 92), which allows jails and prisons to extract profits out of detained immigrants in unregulated carceral spaces. This chapter stands out for its theoretical approach; although the theoretical argument about the political economy of private prisons makes sense, extracting profits from carceral labor is not unique to private prisons.…”