Introduction
🚨 Decreased Reporting: While debates swirl around sanctuary cities, one lesser-discussed consequence of interior immigration enforcement involves its effect on crime reporting by undocumented immigrants.
❓ The Core Question: Does federal collaboration with local law enforcement agencies erode trust among the undocumented?
Data & Methods
👨👩👧👦 Survey Experimentation: Our study employed an embedded experiment within a survey of 512 probability-based, undocumented immigrants.
📊 Context Variation: We systematically manipulated perceptions of local law enforcement's involvement with ICE by varying the reported level of interior immigration enforcement activity across our sample.
Key Findings
📉 Trust Deficit: Results demonstrate a statistically significant decline in trust when respondents perceive higher levels of federal collaboration.
- Community Safety Perception
- Confidentiality for Undocumented Witness Protection
- Rights Protections for All, Including Immigrants
- Protection from Discrimination or Abuse
Real-World Significance
⚖️ Policy Implications: These trust dynamics directly influence whether the undocumented community becomes an unwilling partner—or even disengages entirely—from local public safety efforts.
