Bringing the States Back in: Institutional Determinants of State Level Immigration Policies

For the record 42 million immigrants residing in the U.S., the ease with which they can integrate into society is heavily determined by what state they reside in. While immigration policy formation at the state level is new due to the historical supremacy that the federal government has had on this issue, the federal stalemate at the federal level has led the states to pass more than 1,500 immigration laws since 2005. How states come to enact inclusive or exclusionary immigration policies is not well understood. Previous scholarship has examined many important predictors of these inclusive or exclusionary laws, but the results have been inconsistent and inconclusive. I examine all 50 states by coding all immigration laws passed by state legislatures between 2005-2013 based on whether they include or exclude immigrants from an economic or social benefit. I then draw on a number of sources to incorporate previously examined predictors while also accounting for the many ways state institutional arrangements vary. Using advanced statistical modeling, results indicate that state institutions shape immigration policies in important and unexpected ways. To gain greater insight into how individuals within state institutions are able to influence policy, I then engage in interviews of key informants to determine what role the data production and research produced by state agencies has on informing lawmakers as they contemplate legislation that impacts immigrants in their state.