Replication Data for: How Interior Immigration Enforcement Affects Trust in Law Enforcement

The day-to-day behaviors of undocumented immigrants are significantly affected when local law enforcement officials do the work of federal immigration enforcement. One such behavior, which has been widely discussed in debates over sanctuary policies, is that undocumented immigrants are less likely to report crimes to the police when local law enforcement officials work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on federal immigration enforcement. However, the mechanism that explains this relationship, which is decreased trust in law enforcement, has not yet been systematically tested. Do undocumented immigrants become less trusting of police officers and sheriffs when local law enforcement officials work with ICE on federal immigration enforcement? To answer this question, we embedded an experiment that varied the interior immigration enforcement context in a survey (n = 512) drawn from a probability-based sample of undocumented immigrants. When local law enforcement officials work with ICE on federal immigration enforcement, respondents are statistically significantly less likely to say that they trust that police officers and sheriffs will keep them, their families, and their communities safe, protect the confidentiality of witnesses to crimes even if they are undocumented, protect the rights of all people, including undocumented immigrants, equally, and protect undocumented immigrants from abuse or discrimination.

当当地执法官员开展联邦移民执法工作时，无证移民的日常行为会受到显著影响。其中一种在庇护政策辩论中被广泛讨论的行为是，当当地执法部门与美国移民及海关执法局（U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement，ICE）合作开展联邦移民执法时，无证移民向警方报案的可能性会降低。然而，解释这一关联的机制——即对执法部门信任度下降——尚未得到系统性检验。当当地执法官员与ICE合作开展联邦移民执法时，无证移民是否会降低对警察和县治安官的信任度？为解答这一问题，我们在一项基于概率抽样的无证移民调查（样本量n=512）中嵌入了一项对境内移民执法情境进行变量操控的实验。当当地执法部门与ICE合作开展联邦移民执法时，受访者在统计上显著更倾向于不认同以下表述：他们信任警察和县治安官能够保护自己、家人及社区的安全；即使证人是无证移民，也能保护犯罪证人的保密性；平等保护所有人群（包括无证移民）的权利；以及保护无证移民免受虐待或歧视。