Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Drawing on her 24 years directing the Immigrant Policy Project at the National Conference of State Legislatures and ten years working with NCSL’s Task Force on Immigration and the States, in this presentation, Ann Morse will provide context for the panel by providing an overview of trends in state immigrant policies since 2010. These trends include the wave of immigration enforcement in 2010-2012; supportive responses to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA, a program that offers relief from deportation and work authorization for youth who arrived to the United States before age 30, have been in the country for five years, and meet other conditions) after 2012; and the return of enforcement bills after the terrorist attack in Paris in November 2015. This analysis of trends is based on her regular reports, published three times a year since 2005, that summarize introduced and enacted state-level legislation related to immigrants and immigration.

After providing this overview of recent trends, Ms. Morse will focus in on state activity related to immigrants in 2016, relying on her mid-year analysis of state immigrant laws. To date, 2016 trends include an emerging focus on sanctuary cities and bills related to refugee resettlement. Finally, Ms. Morse will talk about the types of information and data that state legislators and their staff look for and use while developing policies related to immigrants.

This presentation will set the stage for the following three papers that provide evidence on specific consequences of state policies toward immigrants, which are all intended to inform policymaking at the state level.