The Expanding Reach of Immigration Enforcement: Understanding Who Experiences Fear of Deportation in the United States

• In Event: 30417 - Fear, Belonging, and Immigration: Experiences of Migrants and Host Societies

Abstract

Immigrants and their families have been living under a cloud of fear that they or a loved one could suddenly be deported. Scholarship shows that this fear is consequential for health and wellbeing. Yet, we have a limited understanding of who experiences deportation fears in the United States and the factors shaping these fears. Drawing on a nationally representative survey of 5,111 first- and second-generation Latinx and Asian adults conducted in June-August of 2022, this study examines who experiences deportation fears and tests potential mechanisms driving these fears. Findings show that a much larger and more diverse population is experiencing deportation fears for themselves and for their loved ones than appreciated in prior work. Results further show that both fear for self and fear for others depend on the intersections of multiple social positions, especially ethnicity and legal status. Mechanisms theorized in prior work to explain differences in fear by social position, including stakes of enforcement, contact with the enforcement system, and perceptions of local and national enforcement, do not mediate the relationship between social position and personal fear. Rather, these factors have largely additive effects. Taken together, these findings illustrate how deportation fears are both widespread and entrenched, with important implications for the wellbeing of immigrants and their families throughout the United States.

Authors

• Margot Moinester, Washington University in St. Louis

• Ariela Schachter, Washington University-St. Louis