Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activities have markedly increased in the United States. We examine relatively understudied consequence of such activities: its effects on the health of pregnant mothers and their children. Data come from North Carolina, a state that has seen rapid influx in the number of Hispanic migrants, but also one of the first to enact tougher immigration enforcement policies. Pregnancies are classified by levels of potential exposure to ICE activities considering that immigration enforcement is targeted both in terms of race/ethnicity and in terms of gender –Hispanic men are the group most likely to experience removal. We study effects on different demographic groups defined by maternal education as well as the ethnicity and birth location of mothers and fathers. We conduct difference-in-differences and triple-differences case-control regression analysis using alternative contrast groups that are unlikely to be affected by ICE activities. Our results show that the introduction of the policy led to a reduction of approximately 59 grams in birth weight of babies in the population most likely affected by immigration enforcement. This effect seems to result from newbornsbeing small for their gestational age and coexists with a reduction in the quality of pre-natal care received. Our findings inform policies that address disadvantages generated before birth, and provide a quantification of the human impact of policies that target undocumented populations and the anti-immigrant sentiment they tend to spread across communities.