Latino Collective Action in The United States 1990-2009: The Impacts of Legislative and Repressive Threats

• In Event: International Migration Section Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 05. Transnational politics / immigrant political participation

Abstract

This paper examines how legislative and repressive threats shape pan-Latino collective action across nine U.S. metropolitan areas from 1990 to 2009. Drawing on a new longitudinal dataset of immigrant-related protest events compiled from newspaper sources, we analyze monthly protest counts using fixed-effects negative binomial models. We conceptualize exclusionary immigration legislation and enforcement actions—arrests/raids, detentions, and deportations—as boundary-making threats that can foster panethnic solidarity and prompt collective action among immigrants. Results show that the introduction of anti-immigrant bills significantly increases protest activity in the following month, suggesting that proposed legislation serves as a salient mobilizing signal. Similarly, enforcement actions, including arrests/raids and higher detention levels, are associated with increased protest rates, indicating that repressive threats may stimulate rather than suppress collective action. Overall, the findings highlight threat-driven mobilization as a key mechanism shaping Latino protest dynamics in new immigrant destinations.

Authors

• Yanming Kuang, Indiana University-Bloomington

• Dina G. Okamoto, Indiana University-Bloomington

• Kim Ebert, North Carolina State University