A National Study Of Immigration Detention In The United States, Emily Ryo, Ian Peacock
Oct 2018
A National Study Of Immigration Detention In The United States, Emily Ryo, Ian Peacock
Emily Ryo
Amidst growing reports of abuses and rights violations in immigration detention, the Trump administration has sought to expand the use of immigration detention to facilitate its deportation policy. This study offers the first comprehensive empirical analysis of U.S. immigration detention at the national level. Drawing on administrative records and geocoded data pertaining to all noncitizens who were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in fiscal year 2015, we examine who the detainees are, where they were held, and what happened to them.
Beyond The Walls: The Importance Of Community Contexts In Immigration Detention, Emily Ryo, Ian Peacock
Dec 2017
Beyond The Walls: The Importance Of Community Contexts In Immigration Detention, Emily Ryo, Ian Peacock
Emily Ryo
Immigration detention facilities are commonly assumed to be insulated microcosms that maintain their existence separate and apart from the surrounding communities. Yet, detention facilities are not hermetically sealed institutions. Drawing on unique and comprehensive data pertaining to all individuals held in immigration detention in the United States in fiscal year 2015, this study explores for the first time the importance of community contexts in immigration detention. Our multivariate analyses show a significant relationship between the characteristics of communities in which the facilities are located and detention length for individuals who were released pending the completion of their removal proceedings. Specifically, …
Predicting Danger In Immigration Courts, Emily Ryo
Dec 2017
Predicting Danger In Immigration Courts, Emily Ryo
Emily Ryo
Every year, the US government detains thousands of noncitizens in removal proceedings on the basis that they might pose a threat to public safety if released during the pendency of their removal proceedings. Using original audio recording data on immigration bond hearings, this study examines immigration judges’ determinations regarding which noncitizens pose a danger to the community. My multivariate analysis that controls for a variety of detainee background characteristics and criminal conviction-related measures produced three main findings. First, I find that Central Americans are more likely to be deemed dangerous than non-Central Americans. Second, I find that detainees with attorneys …
Representing Immigrants: The Role Of Lawyers In Immigration Bond Hearings, Emily Ryo
Dec 2017
Representing Immigrants: The Role Of Lawyers In Immigration Bond Hearings, Emily Ryo
Emily Ryo
Do immigration lawyers matter, and if so, how? Drawing on a rich source of audio recording data, this study addresses these questions in the context of U.S. immigration bond hearings—a critical stage in the removal process for noncitizens who have been apprehended by U.S. immigration officials. First, my regression analysis using a matched sample of legally represented and unrepresented detainees shows that represented detainees have significantly higher odds of being granted bond. Second, I explore whether legal representation affects judicial efficiency and find no evidence of such a relationship. Third, I examine procedural and substantive differences between represented and unrepresented …
Legal Attitudes Of Immigrant Detainees, Emily Ryo
Feb 2017
Legal Attitudes Of Immigrant Detainees, Emily Ryo
Emily Ryo
A substantial body of research shows that people’s legal attitudes can have wide-ranging behavioral consequences. In this paper, I use original survey data to examine long-term immigrant detainees’ legal attitudes. I find that the majority of detainees express a felt obligation to obey the law, and do so at a significantly higher rate than other U.S. sample populations. I also find that the detainees’ perceived obligation to obey U.S. immigration authorities is significantly related to their evaluations of procedural justice, as measured by their assessments of fair treatment while in detention. This finding remains robust controlling for a variety of …
On Normative Effects Of Immigration Law.Pdf, Emily Ryo
Dec 2016
On Normative Effects Of Immigration Law.Pdf, Emily Ryo
Emily Ryo
Can laws shape and mold our attitudes, values, and social norms, and if so, how do immigration laws affect our attitudes or views toward minority groups? I explore these questions through a randomized laboratory experiment that examines whether and to what extent short-term exposures to anti-immigration and pro-immigration laws affect people’s implicit and explicit attitudes toward Latinos. My analysis shows that exposure to an anti-immigration law is associated with increased perceptions among study participants that Latinos are unintelligent and law-breaking. In contrast, I find no evidence that exposure to pro-immigration laws promoted positive attitudes toward Latinos. Taken together, these results …
The Promise Of A Subject-Centered Approach To Understanding Immigration Noncompliance, Emily Ryo
Dec 2016
The Promise Of A Subject-Centered Approach To Understanding Immigration Noncompliance, Emily Ryo
Emily Ryo
Unauthorized immigrants and immigration enforcement are once again at the center of heated public debates and reform agendas. This paper examines the importance of applying a subject-centered approach to understanding immigration noncompliance and to developing effective, ethical, and equitable immigration policies. In general, a subject-centered approach focuses on the beliefs, values, and perceptions of individuals whose behavior the law seeks to regulate. This approach has been widely used in non-immigration law contexts to produce a richer and more nuanced understanding of legal noncompliance. By contrast, the subject-centered approach has been an overlooked and underappreciated tool in the study of immigration …
Fostering Legal Cynicism Through Immigration Detention, Emily Ryo
Dec 2016
Fostering Legal Cynicism Through Immigration Detention, Emily Ryo
Emily Ryo
Every year, tens of thousands of noncitizens in removal proceedings are held and processed through an expanding web of immigration detention facilities across the United States. The use of immigration detention is expected to dramatically increase under the Trump administration’s mass deportation policy. I argue that this civil confinement system may serve a critical socio-legal function that has escaped the attention of policymakers, scholars, and the public alike. Using extensive original data on long-term immigrant detainees, I explore how immigration detention might function as a site of legal socialization that helps to promote or reinforce widespread legal cynicism among immigrant …
Moral Judgments, Expressive Functions, And Bias In Immigration Law, Emily Ryo
Dec 2015
Moral Judgments, Expressive Functions, And Bias In Immigration Law, Emily Ryo
Emily Ryo
In a lucid and trenchant style characteristic of Professor Hiroshi Motomura’s writing, Immigration Outside the Law offers rich descriptive and prescriptive analyses of three major themes underlying debates about unauthorized migration: the meaning of unlawful presence, state and local involvement in the regulation of unauthorized migration, and the integration of unauthorized migrants into American society. This review advances several ideas that I argue are important to understanding these key themes. In brief, I suggest that a more comprehensive understanding of public debates about unauthorized migration requires examining lay moral judgments about unlawful presence, the expressive functions of immigration law, and …
Detained: A Study Of Immigration Bond Hearings, Emily Ryo
Dec 2015
Detained: A Study Of Immigration Bond Hearings, Emily Ryo
Emily Ryo
Immigration judges make consequential decisions that fundamentally affect the basic life chances of thousands of noncitizens and their family members every year. Yet, we know very little about how immigration judges make their decisions, including decisions about whether to release or detain noncitizens pending the completion of their immigration cases. Using original data on long-term immigrant detainees, I examine for the first time judicial decision-making in immigration bond hearings. I find that there are extremely wide variations in the average bond grant rates and bond amount decisions among judges in the study sample. What are the determinants of these bond …
Less Enforcement, More Compliance, Emily Ryo
Feb 2015
Less Enforcement, More Compliance, Emily Ryo
Emily Ryo
A common assumption underlying the current public discourse and legal treatment of unauthorized immigrants is that unauthorized immigrants are lawless individuals who will break the law—any law—in search of economic gain. This notion persists despite substantial empirical evidence to the contrary. Drawing on original empirical data, this Article examines unauthorized immigrants and their relationship to the law from a novel perspective to make two major contributions. First, I demonstrate that unauthorized immigrants view themselves and their noncompliance with U.S. immigration law in a manner that is strikingly different from the prevalent view of criminality and lawlessness found in popular and …
Deciding To Cross: The Norms And Economics Of Unauthorized Migration, Emily Ryo
Dec 2012
Deciding To Cross: The Norms And Economics Of Unauthorized Migration, Emily Ryo
Emily Ryo
Why are there so many unauthorized migrants in the United States? Using unique survey data collected in Mexico through the Mexican Migration Project, I develop and test a new decisionmaking model of unauthorized labor migration. The new model considers the economic motivations of prospective migrants, as well as their beliefs, attitudes, and social norms regarding U.S. immigration law and legal authorities. My findings show that perceptions of certainty of apprehension and severity of punishment are not significant determinants of the intent to migrate illegally; however, perceptions of availability of Mexican jobs and the dangers of border crossing are significant determinants …
