Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Over the last decade, state and local governments have played a greater role in immigration enforcement. The largest and most widely used local effort to enforce federal immigration law has been the 287(g) program. Enacted by Congress in 1996, the program authorized state and local law enforcement officials to cooperate in the arrest and detention of immigrants in the country without documentation. Los Angeles County implemented its own “jail-based” 287(g) agreement in 2005, which authorized federally-trained deputies in county jails to screen for immigration status and issue detainers to those without documentation. This effort has been successful identifying, detaining, and deporting thousands of undocumented immigrants since its inception. This relative success suggests that families and children may have been left exposed to the challenges that follow separation.

This study uses within-county variation in the enforcement of 287(g) to measure its impact on household composition and family dynamics of immigrant families. A handful of “sanctuary cities” in LA County do not allow local resources to be used to enforce federal immigration policy and keep police and municipal employees from inquiring about legal status—thus rejecting 287(g). Using two waves of the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (LA FANS) that bookend the 2005 implementation of the 287(g) program, I measure changes in household composition (i.e., two-parent or single-parent households) and child-perceived family life (e.g., presence of mother and father figures, child perceptions of how well family gets along) across immigrant families living in 287(g) jurisdictions and those residing in sanctuary cities. I use a double difference-in-differences design to test whether the program altered these family outcomes.

Findings from this research shed light on the impacts of local immigration enforcement efforts on one crucial support system—the family. Results will contribute to discussions on how local enforcement initiatives impact household composition and family cohesion among some of the most vulnerable and marginalized groups in our communities. The work conducted here seeks to inform national, state, and local decisions to continue, revise, or replace similar enforcement initiatives.