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Immigration Crackdown in the American Workplace: Explaining Variation in E-Verify Policy Adoption Across the U.S. States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Benjamin J. Newman ,
Christopher D. Johnston ,
April A. Strickland  and
Jack Citrin
Benjamin J. Newman*
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA
Christopher D. Johnston
Affiliation:
Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
April A. Strickland
Affiliation:
Stony Brook University, NY, USA
Jack Citrin
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley, USA
*
Benjamin J. Newman, Department of Political Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA Email: benj.newman@uconn.edu
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Abstract

Immigration remains a powerful and recurrent feature of American politics. Of the issues related to immigration, controversy over government policy for controlling illegal immigration occupies a central position in the debate. One increasingly important and prevalent type of control policy that has received little scholarly attention is worksite employment eligibility enforcement, otherwise known as E-Verify Laws. In the present article, we analyze variation in E-Verify policy adoption across the U.S. states, approaching the topic from multiple theoretical perspectives and testing several hypotheses pertaining to policy enactment. Our analysis points to the critical role of proportionate change in a state's immigrant population, as well as the political activity of immigrant-employing industries, in leading to policy adoption. Despite the use of multiple objective indicators, we fail to find strong evidence supporting the hypothesis that economic distress within a state increases its likelihood of enacting E-Verify legislation. Overall, our analysis contributes to an underdeveloped area of immigration policy research and sheds light on an important contemporary immigration issue, while drawing broader conclusions concerning the factors influencing the emergence of anti-immigration policies more generally.

Keywords

immigration policyE-Verifystate politics
Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , June 2012 , pp. 160 - 182
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2012

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