Title: Title of Document: SHOULD THEY STAY OR SHOULD THEY GO? EXAMINING LEGISLATOR BEHAVIOR ON STATE IMMIGRATION POLICY
Abstract: Undocumented immigration used to be the concern of only states that shared a southern border with Mexico or that contained traditional immigrant gateway cities. No longer. Immigration legislation made the policy agenda in all 50 states in 2007, with 46 states enacting into law a total of 240 immigration-related bills. These bills reflect state legislators' intent on managing the largely Latino undocumented immigrant population, with some legislators working to enact legislation that either restricts or expands this group's access to state benefits. Understanding the personal-, district-, and state-level influences on state legislator behavior in this policy arena is important for understanding the relationship between entrenched power and the representation of disempowered minority groups in the U.S. federal system. The immigration policy arena heightens the salience of both legislators own racial and ethnic characteristics and those of their constituents, making it ideal for assessing legislators' representational roles. This dissertation builds upon and challenges the scholarly literature in the two
Publication Year: 2014
Publication Date: 2014-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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