The Expansion of State Immigration Policymaking in the US, 1960-2017

• In Event: 2229 - Section on Political Sociology Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Political Sociology Refereed Roundtable #13

Abstract

In the US, post-2000, there has been a dramatic expansion of the policymaking authority of state and local governments within the immigration policy domain. The popular understanding of this transformation of the immigration policy domain is that states and municipalities are filling the gap left by federal inaction on a pressing policy issue. This facile argument represents a framing of the issue that, while descriptive, and useful for officials critical of the positions of their opponents, ignores the mechanisms that underlie the reorganization of policymaking authority. This paper situates immigration devolution as part of a larger process of decentralization of government programs and policy authority that gained momentum as a reaction to liberal reforms from the 1930s through the 1960s. I argue that, rather than viewing immigration devolution as a simple response to federal inaction, it is important to investigate broader transformations in governmental institutions, and interactions between organized interests on either side of the immigration issue. I couple analysis of witness testimony data from the Congressional Record with data on both federal and state immigration actions, and documents from organizations active on immigration, to do just that.

Author

• David Lee Rigby, UNC Chapel Hill