Immigration Enforcement and Childhood Poverty in the United States

50 Pages Posted: 11 Jul 2016

See all articles by Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes

Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes

San Diego State University - Department of Economics; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Esther Arenas-Arroyo

University of Oxford

Almudena Sevilla

Queen Mary, University of London

Date Written: June 2016

Abstract

Over the past two decades immigration enforcement has grown exponentially in the United States. We exploit the geographical and temporal variation in a novel index of the intensity of immigration enforcement between 2005 and 2011 to show how the average yearly increase in interior immigration enforcement over that time period raised the likelihood of living in poverty of households with U.S. citizen children by 4 percent. The effect is robust to a number of identification tests accounting for the potential endogeneity of enforcement policies, and is primarily driven by police-based immigration enforcement measures adopted at the local level such as 287(g) agreements.

Keywords: immigration enforcement, poverty, U.S. citizen children, unauthorized parents

JEL Classification: I38, J15, K37

Suggested Citation

Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina and Arenas-Arroyo, Esther and Sevilla, Almudena, Immigration Enforcement and Childhood Poverty in the United States (June 2016). IZA Discussion Paper No. 10030, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2807268 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2807268

Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes (Contact Author)

San Diego State University - Department of Economics ( email )

5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego, CA 92182
United States
619-594-1663 (Phone)
619-594-5062 (Fax)

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Esther Arenas-Arroyo

University of Oxford ( email )

58 Banbury Road
Oxford, Oxfordshire OX2 6QS
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://estherarenasarroyo.weebly.com/

Almudena Sevilla

Queen Mary, University of London ( email )

Mile End Road
London, E1 4NS
United Kingdom

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