Deportation Discretion: A Measure of Immigrantss Context of Reception

Abstract

As deportations from the United States rise to unprecedented levels, a nationwide immigration enforcement program (Secure Communities) identified noncitizens under arrest in county jails. The implementation of Secure Communities did not take place on neutral ground. I extend minority threat research by examining how some county and federal officials oversaw exceptionally punitive regimes while others exercised the authority to deport sparingly. I test three minority threat hypotheses and find law enforcement officials deployed Secure Communities punitively in places where Hispanic immigrants communities stand out, especially in select counties near the US-Mexico border and in new destination states. Conversely, noncitizens arrested in counties with a formidable minority presence seem to have benefited from above-average minority concentrations and high levels of segregation. I conclude deportation decisions made in the context of bureaucracies coincided with local demographic forces but not in the same ways as they foretell restrictive immigration actions in state assemblies or public sentiments in opinion surveys.