If They Only Knew? Impact of Information on Immigration Detention Preferences

• In Event: The Legal Construction of Time and Terminology in US Migration Policy

Abstract

Immigration is one of the most polarizing issues in American politics today. The parties have staked out positions focusing on their differing priorities, with Democrats emphasizing the creation of paths to legal status and Republicans focusing on border security. However, neither party has devoted much attention to the issue of immigration detention, the custody of immigrants as they wait for court decisions regarding whether they may legally remain in the country. Although detention is a prominent part of many immigrants’ experiences with the U.S. immigration system, it is rarely the focus of congressional debates or voters’ attitudes.

This lack of sustained attention to immigration detention may be due in part to the complex space that immigration detention occupies in the American legal system. In this paper, I examine the impact of information regarding the immigration detention system on White Americans’ detention preferences. Using a two-level survey experiment, I measure the effect of information treatments (Level 1) on respondents’ evaluations of randomized immigrant profiles presented as conjoint tasks (Level 2). I find that information regarding the immigration system's separation from the criminal legal system results in lower propensities to detain, lower ratings of perceived threat to public safety, and lower flight risk assessments. Moreover, these effects are primarily driven by Republican respondents. The findings suggest that a higher information environment may lead to less partisan polarization on immigration detention opinion than on more crystallized issues of immigration policy.

Author

• Emerald Fikejs, Stanford University