Resisting Enforcement: The Civic and Political Mobilization Effects of Encountering the Immigration Enforcement System

Abstract

While a large body of literature shows that anti-immigrant policies, rhetoric, and contexts have political and civic mobilization effects on immigrants, we know little about the mobilization consequences of actual enforcement contact with the Homeland Security State. In this article, we investigate the relationship between different forms of contact with the immigration enforcement system and electoral and non-electoral participation for Latinx and Asian adults. Using data from the first wave of the National Study of Fear of Deportation, we compare the effects of direct and indirect enforcement contact on the electoral and non-electoral participation of first- and second-generation Latinx and Asian adults. We find that overall enforcement contact increases participation, but effects vary across types of contact, among Latinx and Asian adults, and across forms of political engagement. Rather than disenfranchising through enforcement, government actions aimed at deporting immigrants spur increased participation among first- and second-generation Latinx and Asian adults.