An Assessment of Removable Alien Recidivism Following Removal From the United States By Federal Immigration

• In Event: From Local to Global: Legal Action in Multiple Jurisdictions

Abstract

In July 2015, the killing of San Francisco woman spurred a heated national debate about “sanctuary” jurisdictions that do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities seeking to take custody of specific removable aliens in local criminal justice custody. (Removable aliens is the proper technical term for the group commonly referred to as “illegal immigrants” in popular vernacular.) Those opposing local sanctutary policies assert that if criminally-involved removable aliens were transferred from local jails to federal immigration custody for removal from the country, future crimes by these individuals would be averted. This zero-recidivism assumption may seem reasonable but it has not been tested empirically. The present study will test this hypothesis by analyzing the recidivism patterns of 679 male removable aliens taken into federal immigration custody directly from the Los Angeles County Jail over a 30-day period in 2002. Recidivism is defined as rearrests within California by local law enforcement on non-immigration related charges. The study will describe the immigration custody outcomes for this group (e.g. removal from the United States versus other) and analyze the recidivism patterns of the sample over a nine-year follow-up period, comparing repeat arrests of those removed from the country versus those who were not.

Authors

• Laura Hickman, Portland State University

• Jennifer Wong, Simon Fraser University