Border enforcement and the sorting and commuting patterns of Hispanics

Abstract

AbstractI analyze the effects of immigration enforcement by the US Border Patrol on the sorting and commuting patterns of Hispanics. Using a regression discontinuity design based on a 100‐Mile Border Zone, which permits Border Patrol agents to conduct warrantless searches within 100 air miles of the US border, I find that the share of Hispanics in southwestern states increases outside the Border Zone. This sorting effect disappears, however, when focusing on within‐county differences in shares of Hispanics. I also find no significant commuting effect on Hispanics at the 100‐mile cutoff. On the contrary, I show that Hispanics near Border Patrol checkpoints exhibit significantly different commuting patterns, where a 1 percentage point rise in Hispanic share is associated with a 0.08 percentage point decrease in the probability of commuting toward checkpoints and a 0.2 mile decrease in the average commute distance.