U.S. Border Enforcement and Mexican Immigrant Location Choice

Sarah Bohn () and Todd Pugatch
Additional contact information
Sarah Bohn: Public Policy Institute of California

No 7842, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We provide the first evidence on the causal effect of border enforcement on the full spatial distribution of Mexican immigrants to the United States. We address the endogeneity of border enforcement with an instrumental variables strategy based on administrative delays in budgetary allocations for border security. We find that 1,000 additional border patrol officers assigned to prevent unauthorized migrants from entering a state decreases that state's share of Mexican immigrants by 21.9%. Our estimates imply that border enforcement alone accounted for declines in the share of Mexican immigrants locating in California and Texas of 11 and 6 percentage points, respectively, over the period 1994-2011, with all other states experiencing gains or no change.

Keywords: Mexico; border enforcement; unauthorized immigration; residential location choice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2013-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int, nep-mig and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published - published in: Demography, 2015, 52 (5), 1543-1570

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Journal Article: U.S. Border Enforcement and Mexican Immigrant Location Choice (2015)
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