Latino Deportations and Latino Foreclosures: Connecting the Dots

• In Event: 581 - Section on International Migration Paper Session. Detention, Deportation, and the Refugee Crisis

Abstract

In the past decade Latinos have been buffeted by two major forces, the housing foreclosure crisis and a record number of immigrant deportations, both of which directly affected millions of Latino households. Our research aims to make a connection between Latino deportations and Latino foreclosures. We argue that the surge in Latino deportations in the 2000s that preceded the national foreclosure crisis increased rates of foreclosure among Latino homeowners. We hypothesize that Latino deportations and concomitant Latino out-migration in response to increased local immigration enforcement decrease the number of immigrant adult wage earners in owner-occupied Latino households. We empirically test our hypotheses using several large, unique data sets at the national, county, and individual level. Our results lend support to our hypotheses. After accounting for rival explanations, areas with earlier, more rapid increases in deportations, and relatively more non-criminal removals exhibited higher foreclosure rates among Latinos in later periods.

Authors

• Jacob S. Rugh, Brigham Young University

• Matthew Hall, Cornell University