How Southwestern State Legislatures Legalize and Jeopardize Migrant Lives

• In Event: Poster Session: New Perspectives in Political Science Research: Scholarship by Vanderbilt REU Students

Abstract

The U.S-Mexico border has been described as the most fatal land migration route in the world. Some scholars argue that border mortality is caused in part by American deterrence-based immigration law and record-breaking migration attempts into California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Others examine if these states’ immigration policies determine whether migrants choose deadlier illegal routes as opposed to safer legal pathways. In this paper, I claim that as the number of restrictive policies increases, the population of undocumented immigrants and deaths on the border also increases. I test this argument using databases from the National Conference of State Legislatures, Pew Research Center, and the U.S Border Patrol between 2000 and 2020. This paper also endeavors to evaluate the subnational response of southwestern border states to restrictive federal immigration law and makes claims about the power state policy has in affecting the lives of vulnerable populations.

Author

• Camila R. Armas, Howard University