Immigration Enforcement by Local Police Under 287(g) and Growth of Unauthorized Immigrant and Other Populations

The 287(g) program allows local police agencies to enforce US immigration law, a function otherwise reserved for the federal government. Case studies suggest that the program may decrease unauthorized immigrant population sizes. I test whether participating in 287(g) affected annual growth of local immigrant, Hispanic and Hispanic non-citizen populations between 2005 and 2010 using county population estimates from the American Community Survey and fixed effects regressions. Neither a 287(g) agreement in effect, anticipation of a 287(g) agreement nor measures of 287(g) enforcement effort are associated with growth of the studied populations. My results suggest that local immigration enforcement has been ineffective in controlling growth of the unauthorized immigrant population