Quasi-Experimental Evaluations of Border-Enforcement Measures

Robbins Michael W. (), Treyger Elina () and Chang Joseph C. ()
Additional contact information
Robbins Michael W.: RAND Corporation, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Treyger Elina: RAND Corporation, Arlington, VA, USA
Chang Joseph C.: RAND Corporation, Arlington, VA, USA

Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, 2025, vol. 22, issue 2, 185-222

Abstract: In this article, we seek to establish a causal connection between border-enforcement actions or policies and metrics that might be used to measure relevant outcomes at the border. Applying quasi-experimental methods, we investigate the impact of surveillance technology on levels of U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions of unlawful border-crossers between ports of entry along the southwest border. Our analysis offers insights into some of the effects of surveillance technology and serves as a demonstration of concept for the usefulness of such statistical methods. The most robust finding is that deploying one type of technology – integrated fixed towers (IFTs) – is associated with decreased apprehension levels in the zones of deployment. Although we emphasize ambiguity in the meaning of the results and the uncertainty in statistical inference with relatively small numbers of deployments, we conclude that there is strong evidence that some migrants were deterred from crossing surveilled areas of the border. The results are more inconclusive for other surveillance assets, but there are suggestions that some may elevate apprehension levels, pointing to a boost to the U.S. Border Patrol’s situational awareness. Statistical methods both hold promise and have limitations for the study of the impact of border-enforcement measures beyond the analysis in this study. Although these methods cannot, on their own, yield clear answers in every case, they do have the potential to help policymakers understand and anticipate the impact and effectiveness of different border-enforcement measures.

Keywords: border enforcement; immigration; difference-in-differences; synthetic control (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1515/jhsem-2020-0083 (text/html)
For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bpj:johsem:v:22:y:2025:i:2:p:185-222:n:1001

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.degruyte ... urnal/key/jhsem/html

DOI: 10.1515/jhsem-2020-0083

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management is currently edited by Irmak Renda-Tanali

More articles in Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management from De Gruyter
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().