Immigrants and the Law

Explore further information pertaining to US immigration policy.

Posted on July 31, 2017 in Reviews of the Month

Policing immigrants: local law enforcement on the front lines

by Doris Marie Provine et al Chicago, 2016
206p index afp, 9780226363042 $75.00, 9780226363189 $25.00, 9780226363219

This book should be required reading for policy makers, students of public administration and political science, and those who study the administration of justice in the US. It is the culmination of a study that attempts to develop a coherent portrayal of just how the US is dealing with immigration in the 21st century. The portrayal is coherent. However, as readers quickly learn, the federalism that characterizes the US system of government has resulted in a lack of coherence in immigration policy. The contributors provide a very helpful overview of the development of US immigration policy, tracing its seesaw-like progression from largely state and local control to federal control and the current state of affairs, in which states and localities have again become significant players in immigration policy. The study upon which the authors rely comprises surveys of law enforcement heads in representative samples of small, medium, and large municipalities and in-depth case studies done on a group of “medium-sized” cities. What emerges is an immigration system subject to jurisdictional political leanings that tax the resources of law enforcement at the local level.

Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals.
Reviewer: S. E. Blankenship, Kentucky State University
Subject: Social & Behavioral Sciences – Political Science – U.S. Politics
Choice Issue: Dec 2016

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