Abstract

Abstract:

This paper makes an important contribution to the emerging literature on state-level immigrant policy making by focusing on how policy outputs from 2005 to 2017 in the Southeast vary from the rest of the country, as well as whether those policies can be explained by political dynamics that are peculiar to the region. The analyses employ data from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). Authors coded over 3,500 policies enacted since 2005 for policy tone and created a restrictive score (RS) for each state-year. The regional comparisons show that the Southeastern states are significantly more restrictive in tone than states in other regions, and our findings suggest that the restrictive tone of Southeastern states is likely related to the region's fast growth rate in Hispanics and a political ideology that is more conservative than other regions.

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