Doctoral Dissertation Research: Policing Immigrants: Immigration and Local Governance

尽管联邦政府拥有管理美国移民的专属权力，但越来越多的城市正在制定旨在将移民驱逐出当地的移民政策。本项目以田纳西州纳什维尔为例，重点研究地方政府如何实施移民控制，以及287（g）的应用。根据《非法移民改革和责任法》第287（g）条的授权，287（g）允许地方执法官员检查移民的公民身份，并在必要时处理他们的驱逐出境程序。在纳什维尔，警察局和治安部门都参与了287（g）的执行工作;警察逮捕的人随后由治安官的副手检查是否违反移民法，该项目的研究战略包括采访287（g）政策竞技场的持照人和人种学观察，包括警察随行。与当地执法机构的管理人员和员工进行访谈，以了解员工对287（g）实施的偏好，以及官僚做法，专业身份，专业规范和感知的外部压力水平。与移民倡导者的访谈揭示了他们的组织如何或是否对当地机构施加压力，要求他们不执行287（g），并了解了287（g）对当地移民人口的影响。从官僚主义理论中得出的结论是，政策执行的前线人员通过他们的行动制定政策，本项目研究了287（g）的执行如何取决于政策竞技场中行为者的偏好，以及当地执法机构的体制特点。这项研究是重要的，因为它挑战了对当地移民执法的增长趋势的假设，展示了移民警务的基本规则。

Although the federal government has the exclusive authority to regulate migration in the United States, increasingly, cities are creating immigration policies aimed at expelling immigrants from their localities. This project focuses on how local bureaucracies implement immigration control, using Nashville, Tennessee, and its application of 287(g) as a case study. Authorized under Section 287(g) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act, 287(g) allows local law enforcement officials to check immigrants' citizenship status and, if necessary, process them for deportation. In Nashville, both the Police and Sheriff's Departments are implicated in 287(g) implementation; police officers arrest people who are subsequently screened for immigration violations by Sheriff's deputies.The research strategy for this project involves interviews with stake-holders in the 287(g) policy arena and ethnographic observations, including police ride-alongs. Interviews with administrators and employees in local law enforcement agencies are conducted to understand employee preferences with respect to 287(g) implementation, as well as bureaucratic practices, professional identity, professional norms, and perceived levels of external pressure. Interviews with immigrant advocates uncover how, or if, their organizations pressure local agencies for non-implementation, and get at the effects of 287(g) on the local immigrant population.Drawing from theories of bureaucracy suggesting that people on the front lines of policy implementation make policy through their actions, this project examines how 287(g) implementation depends on the preferences of actors in the policy arena, and the institutional characteristics of local law enforcement agencies. This research is important because it challenges assumptions about the growing trend toward local immigration enforcement by demonstrating the on-the-ground rules of immigration policing.