Unauthorized immigration has become a primary domestic issue in the United States. An estimated 12 million people without legal status reside in the US, many in locations unaccustomed to immigration. Along with refugee settlement and legal immigration, unauthorized immigration is transforming many American communities. State and local jurisdictions have responded with a patchwork of ordinances, policies and practices, most of which are designed to discourage settlement. While some localities have taken no action, others have asked their municipal police to check immigration status in the course of routine law enforcement, challenging police to stretch resources and to re-negotiate relations with minority residents while avoiding racial profiling. These requests jeopardize long-standing commitments to community policing, while shifting to the local level some of the responsibility for immigration enforcement traditionally held at the federal level. The impact of the national movement to devolve immigration authority to the local level on municipal policing is the subject of this research.
The starting point for this research is a national survey of police chiefs conducted during 2007-2008 academic year. Cities of 60,000 population or more were included, a total of 451 cities. The current project accomplishes the following: 1. Detailed analysis of the 237 responses, and 2. In-depth studies of four cities that have experienced the impact of recent immigration. The project tests the hypothesis that policing policies emerge from a dynamic mix of local politics and external forces, filtered by the professional norms of police agencies. Cities are selected for in-depth case studies on the basis of their political responses to increased immigration. Citizens, policy makers, students, non-governmental organizations, and police departments will benefit from information provided by this research about the costs and benefits of immigration policing.
