Abstract:
We leverage the rollout of Secure Communities (S-Comm)—the largest effort in US history to integrate local criminal justice authorities into immigration enforcement—to examine whether immigration enforcement exacerbates racial disparities in the criminal justice system. Using detailed case information on all arrests in California and Texas from 2006–12, we test conflicting theoretical views as to whether S-Comm altered arrest and case processing practices. We find that the implementation of S-Comm had little impact on the arrest patterns of Latinos and non-US citizens in either state. However, the case processing of non-US citizens be-came considerably more punitive following S-Comm, but only in Texas, where the justice system was closely coupled with immigration enforcement. These findings recalibrate our understanding of the scope, target, and impact of national immigration enforcement programs and suggest that the organizational context plays a consequential role as to whether immigration enforcement alters local criminal justice practices.