Panel Paper:
Inducing the “Permanent Underclass”: Collateral Educational Effects of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act on Undocumented High-School Youth
Thursday, July 19, 2018
Building 5, Sala Maestros Upper (ITAM)
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
In this paper, I investigate the impact of sections 507 and 505 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), which intend to influence college choice behaviors of undocumented and unlawfully present young adults, on high-school diploma attainment among likely such young adults, ages 16-21, who have resided in the United States for at least three years. Ceteris paribus, sections 507 and 505 should have had no effect on undocumented youth's high-school behaviors because: (1) their access to secondary education in the U.S. is guaranteed by Plyler v. Doe (1982) and protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA); and (2) their immigration status is not considered unlawful per IIRIRA section 212(9). Through difference-in-differences analyses of Current Population Survey (CPS) data comparing likely undocumented youth to similarly situated citizen youth of the same age and ethnic background, I nevertheless find that IIRIRA sections 507 and 505 substantially depressed high-school diploma attainment among undocumented youth. My results suggest that these IIRIRA provisions reduce expectations, not only of returns from college behaviors I examined in previous research, but also in expectations of returns from high-school-level education for which these youth enjoy constructive access. These observations raise implications for the ability of proposed Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act-type legislations to mitigate against the creation of a "permanent underclass" in the absence of more comprehensive immigration reforms that revisit how federal laws impose undocumented status.
