Study: State Immigration Laws Hinder Police
Immigrant advocates and many top law enforcement officials have complained that harsh state immigration laws hinder the ability of police to work with communities.
A 2012 study suggests the complaint is valid. Researchers found that tough immigration laws may limit illegal immigration, but they also can have the unintended consequence of undermining public safety and making immigrant communities less likely to cooperate with police against criminal activity.
Published in the May 2012 Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the study suggests that lawmakers who tell constituents that harsh immigration laws are keeping them safe may be dead wrong.
The researchers believe that the hardline immigration laws passed in Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and other states have actually made communities less safe.
Andrew Papachristos, a professor of sociology at Yale University and a researcher at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, says too many state lawmakers are convinced that deportation and uprooting immigrants will lower crime rates.
“But this ignores more than a century of research that demonstrates that immigrants are actually less likely to commit a crime than their native-born counterparts,” Papachristos says.
“What our study shows is that immigrant communities are actually more cooperative with police. Laws like (Arizona) SB 1070 will do more harm than good since they are likely to erode people’s trust in the legal system and make them pause before helping police.”
Many law enforcement officials in the states that have passed immigration laws have said their jobs have gotten more difficult because the lines of communication are strained with immigrant neighborhoods. People who used to be willing to come forward and assist police are now more likely to remain in the shadows for fear of deportation or state penalties.
Thousands of immigrants, both legal and illegal, have moved across state lines to places without harsh immigration laws, examples of what proponents of the laws often call “self-deportation.”
Papachristos, who co-led the study with David Kirk of the University of Texas at Austin, used data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the World Bank’s World Governance Indicators project and a 2002 survey of New York City residents. The researchers found that immigrant communities have been less cynical about the legal system and more likely to cooperate with law enforcement than native-born residents.
The authors note, however, that annual deportations have roughly tripled in the decade since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, another factor that has contributed to the erosion of cooperation between immigrants and police.
The Obama administration is challenging the Arizona law in the courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on the case in June. The administration also has shifted its policy on deportations, announcing in 2011 that it would concentrate on removing illegal immigrants with criminal records.
“The results of this study shed new light on the way the law is perceived in immigrant communities,” the researchers say. The believe study refutes the politically skewed argument often made that immigrants are inherently unwilling to work with police and because of that make neighborhoods less safe and more prone to crime.
“In summary, cooperation with the police is significantly more likely in neighborhoods with concentrations of immigrants, particularly in neighborhoods with a relatively homogenous immigrant community,” the authors say in their study.
“Yet because cynicism of the law is such a powerful predictor of cooperation with the police, the cooperative, amiable relations found in many immigrant communities between police and residents can easily erode if the perceived fairness and legitimacy of the U.S. justice system decays. Immigration enforcement, particularly those laws and initiatives that would inevitably cast a wide net, may alienate the very communities in the U.S. which most reliably work with the police to protect public safety.”
A 2012 study suggests the complaint is valid. Researchers found that tough immigration laws may limit illegal immigration, but they also can have the unintended consequence of undermining public safety and making immigrant communities less likely to cooperate with police against criminal activity.
Published in the May 2012 Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the study suggests that lawmakers who tell constituents that harsh immigration laws are keeping them safe may be dead wrong.
The researchers believe that the hardline immigration laws passed in Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and other states have actually made communities less safe.
Andrew Papachristos, a professor of sociology at Yale University and a researcher at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, says too many state lawmakers are convinced that deportation and uprooting immigrants will lower crime rates.
“But this ignores more than a century of research that demonstrates that immigrants are actually less likely to commit a crime than their native-born counterparts,” Papachristos says.
“What our study shows is that immigrant communities are actually more cooperative with police. Laws like (Arizona) SB 1070 will do more harm than good since they are likely to erode people’s trust in the legal system and make them pause before helping police.”
Many law enforcement officials in the states that have passed immigration laws have said their jobs have gotten more difficult because the lines of communication are strained with immigrant neighborhoods. People who used to be willing to come forward and assist police are now more likely to remain in the shadows for fear of deportation or state penalties.
Thousands of immigrants, both legal and illegal, have moved across state lines to places without harsh immigration laws, examples of what proponents of the laws often call “self-deportation.”
Papachristos, who co-led the study with David Kirk of the University of Texas at Austin, used data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the World Bank’s World Governance Indicators project and a 2002 survey of New York City residents. The researchers found that immigrant communities have been less cynical about the legal system and more likely to cooperate with law enforcement than native-born residents.
The authors note, however, that annual deportations have roughly tripled in the decade since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, another factor that has contributed to the erosion of cooperation between immigrants and police.
The Obama administration is challenging the Arizona law in the courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on the case in June. The administration also has shifted its policy on deportations, announcing in 2011 that it would concentrate on removing illegal immigrants with criminal records.
“The results of this study shed new light on the way the law is perceived in immigrant communities,” the researchers say. The believe study refutes the politically skewed argument often made that immigrants are inherently unwilling to work with police and because of that make neighborhoods less safe and more prone to crime.
“In summary, cooperation with the police is significantly more likely in neighborhoods with concentrations of immigrants, particularly in neighborhoods with a relatively homogenous immigrant community,” the authors say in their study.
“Yet because cynicism of the law is such a powerful predictor of cooperation with the police, the cooperative, amiable relations found in many immigrant communities between police and residents can easily erode if the perceived fairness and legitimacy of the U.S. justice system decays. Immigration enforcement, particularly those laws and initiatives that would inevitably cast a wide net, may alienate the very communities in the U.S. which most reliably work with the police to protect public safety.”