Immigration Enforcement in the Age of Trump
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CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Trinity College Trinity College Trinity College Digital Repository Senior Theses and Projects Student Works Spring 2018 Immigration Enforcement in the Age of Trump: Local Government Responses to Federal Immigration Rhetoric and Policy Change Abigail Painchaud Trinity College, Hartford Connecticut, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/theses Part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Painchaud, Abigail, "Immigration Enforcement in the Age of Trump: Local Government Responses to Federal Immigration Rhetoric and Policy Change". Senior Theses, Trinity College, Hartford, CT 2018. Trinity College Digital Repository, https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/theses/718 Immigration Enforcement in the Age of Trump: Local Government Responses to Federal Immigration Rhetoric and Policy Change A Public Policy Honor’s Thesis Abigail Painchaud Abigail Fisher Williamson Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................... 3 Introduction ............................................................................................. 4 Immigration Federaism ...................................................................................................................................................... 5 State and Local Initiatives ............................................................................................................................................... 13 Theories of Local Response ............................................................................................................................................ 16 General Theories of Police Response and Decision Making ........................................................................... 20 Policy and Rhetoric Changes Under President Trump ..................................................................................... 24 Outline of Thesis By Chapter ............................................................................................................................ 27 Chapter One: Sanctuary City History and Analysis ......................... 30 History of the Term ‘Sanctuary’ .................................................................................................................................... 30 Recent Sanctuary City History ....................................................................................................................................... 34 Sanctuary City Debate: Pros and Cons ..................................................................................................................... 37 State Responses to Sanctuary Cities during Trump Administration .......................................................... 42 Examining Sanctuary Cities Before and After President Trump .................................................................. 44 Chapter Two: Demographic Analysis for Case Study ...................... 48 Connecticut and New Hampshire Demographic Information ....................................................................... 49 Connecticut and New Hampshire Ideology Analysis ......................................................................................... 51 Connecticut and New Hampshire Immigration Policy Analysis ................................................................... 53 Cities and Immigrant Policies ........................................................................................................................................ 56 City Demographics: Foreign-Born Population ..................................................................................................... 59 Immigration Policies in Each City ............................................................................................................................... 60 Comparing Responses to Immigrants Across Cities .......................................................................................... 69 Chapter 3: Interviewing Police Officers in Connecticut and New Hampshire: A Case Study Analysis ..................................................... 75 Views and Perceptions of Officers ................................................................................................................................ 78 Policies in the Six Cities................................................................................................................................................... 85 Changes in Response to the New Administration ............................................................................................... 95 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 103 Appendix .............................................................................................. 109 Bibliography ......................................................................................... 111 2 Abstract This thesis explores how local governments, and specifically police departments are responding to the federal immigration rhetoric and policy changes. Previous literature argues that the national government’s role in immigration will strongly shape how local governments respond and how they will change their policies. In the first section, this thesis examines sanctuary cities across the United States and uses a specific data set of sanctuary cities to determine their status and their changes under the new administration. I find that despite the constant change on the national level and their anti-immigrant rhetoric, localities around the United States are pursuing accommodating practices as well as restrictive practices, illustrating a deviation from previous literature. I continue my analysis with a case study in Connecticut and New Hampshire, to discover how practices in police departments may differ in states that have significantly different policies toward immigration and accommodation. Overall, I find that despite the differences in both Connecticut and New Hampshire, police departments on the local level are not experiencing formal changes in their departments despite the significant changes that have developed on the national level. This also demonstrates a divergence from previous literature that maintains that the national government’s changes will have a significant effect on local policymaking. 3 Introduction The immigration debate gained its momentum during the last presidential campaign, as President Donald Trump spoke out strongly against illegal immigration, specifically targeting unauthorized immigrants crossing the borders from Mexico and Latin America. In 2015, in Donald Trump’s campaign speech for President of the United States, he stated, “When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you. They're not sending you. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”1 The comments made by the current President of the United States during his campaign, and the actions that have continued well into his administration have rapidly changed the political and social climate of the U.S. In this thesis, I explore the question, “how are local governments, and specifically police departments, responding to these federal policy and rhetoric changes regarding immigration? Immigrants live in local communities all around the United States, which makes the way in which local officials are respsonding to immigration enforcement highly significant. Futhermore, we expect police departments to mirror the national rheotric and to respond to the restrictive nature of the federal government. This thesis will determine whether this is the case, and if it is not, this thesis will look into the policies and practices that are being implemented locally. In the first section of this thesis I analyze sanctuary city data and find that many cities have implemented sanctuary policies and practices even after President Trump began his strong anti-immigrant rhetoric. Additionally, drawing on interviews with eleven police officers in two New England states, I find few formal changes on the local level in response to 1 Staff, Washington Post, "Full Text: Donald Trump Announces a Presidential Bid," The Washington Post, June 16, 2015. recent federal changes. In order to understand why police officials are responding to federal changes in this way, we must first consider previous findings about immigration federalism (or which level of government holds the power to enforce and regulate immigration), the characteristics of local government responses to immigrants, and the specifics of how President Trump’s policy and rhetoric changes affect local law enforcement agencies. Immigration Federaism Throughout American history, the power to control immigration enforcement has fluctuated between federal, state and local governments, and recently, this power has been contested at the local, state, and national level. The United States Constitution empowers Congress to “establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization,” (U.S Constitution, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 4) which provides the federal government with the power to control who can enter the country and who can become a citizen. As Gulasekaram and Ramakrishnan argue, Congress established