Beyond the Border and into the Heartland: Inequality in the Spatial Patterning of U.S. Immigration Enforcement

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

Abstract

Over the past two decades, immigration enforcement in the United States has expanded from the border into the interior and the annual numbers of detentions and deportations have increased dramatically. Despite a burgeoning social science literature on these trends, no study to date has systematically examined the spatial patterning of immigrant detention and deportation across the US. Drawing on administrative records of all individuals detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) between 2008 and 2009 and on data from the American Community Survey, this paper examines variation in states’ detention rates and investigates how detention practices and outcomes are structured by the place of apprehension. Initial findings indicate considerable variability in both detention rates and outcomes. States’ detention rates range from 38 to 826 detentions per 10,000 non-citizens and states’ average length of detention range from 13 to 90 days. Moreover, rates of removal vary by as much as 30 percentage points between states. These striking disparities and the growing number of deportations annually suggest that immigrant detention and deportation practices may be transforming the spatial contours of inequality in the United States.

Author

• Margot Moinester, Harvard University