Working Paper: NBER ID: w24487
Authors: Julia Shuhuah Wang; Neeraj Kaushal
Abstract: We study the effect of two local immigration enforcement policies – Section 287(g) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act and the Secure Communities Program (SC) – that have escalated fear and risk of deportation among the undocumented on the health and mental health outcomes of Latino immigrants living in the United States. We use the restricted-use National Health Interview Survey for 2000-2012 and adopt a difference-in-difference research design. Estimates suggest that SC increased the proportion of Latino immigrants with mental health distress by 2.2 percentage points (14.7 percent); Task Force Enforcement under Section 287(g) worsened their mental health distress scores by 15 percent (0.08 standard deviation); Jail Enforcement under Section 287(g) increased the proportion of Latino immigrants reporting fair or poor health by 1 percentage point (11.1 percent) and lowered the proportion reporting very good or excellent health by 4.8 to 7.0 percentage points (7.8 to 10.9 percent). These findings are robust across various sensitivity checks.
Keywords: immigration enforcement; health; mental health; Latino immigrants
JEL Codes: I1; I14; I3; J15; J18
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Secure Communities program (SC) (K37) | proportion of Latino immigrants experiencing mental health distress (J82) |
| task force enforcement agreements under section 287(g) (F53) | mental health distress scores (I31) |
| jail enforcement under section 287(g) (K37) | proportion of Latino immigrants reporting fair or poor health (I14) |
| jail enforcement under section 287(g) (K37) | proportion of Latino immigrants reporting very good or excellent health (I14) |