Local implementation of U.S. federal immigration programs: context, control, and the problems of intergovernmental implementation

William D. Schreckhise () and Daniel E. Chand ()
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William D. Schreckhise: University of Arkansas
Daniel E. Chand: Kent State University

Policy Sciences, 2023, vol. 56, issue 4, No 8, 797-823

Abstract: Abstract Scholars contend that presidents exert some influence over the implementation of national policy. Yet, prior research has overlooked the importance of local context, specifically socio-political conditions, and how it can shape an agency’s response to executive-level guidance. We examine the effect of local context on county-level immigration removals by ICE agents from 2013 through 2018. We predict local removals starting with the Secure Communities program, continuing under Obama’s two-year Priority Enforcement Program (PEP), and up through Trump’s zero-tolerance policies. Obama-era executive guidance, which advised agents to target only dangerous criminal immigrants, did lead to a significant national decline in total removals. However, conservative localities continued to remove large numbers, even during PEP. Notably, the difference between conservative and liberal communities was largest for non-criminal immigrant removals. Despite Obama’s guidance to focus on dangerous immigrants, ICE agents continued to remove undocumented immigrants without criminal records from conservative U.S. counties. Our analysis indicates street-level agents are most responsive to chief-executive direction in the absence of local-level opposition to top-down demands.

Keywords: Presidential unilateralism; Principal–agent dilemma; Executive actions; Intergovernmental relations; Immigration policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/s11077-023-09511-8

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