Stanford Sociology

@stanfordsoc.bsky.social

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Official Bluesky account of the Department of Sociology at Stanford University. https://sociology.stanford.edu/

Urban Studies BA graduates and the director of Urban Studies posing for a photo on the podium
ASGS co-chair Emily Johnson holding up a sweatshirt and smiling. Sweatshirts in the background on a table.
Qualitative studies on local police collaborations with federal immigration enforcement authorities reveal risks to the well-being of noncitizens, particularly the undocumented, and their families and communities. Yet statistical evidence of these policies’ effects is mixed. We propose that quantitative studies may misidentify the timing of when these policies begin disrupting immigrant communities by relying on a policy’s formal enactment date to indicate its activation. We test this proposal in the context of Secure Communities, a federal program with a staggered rollout that asked local police to detain noncitizens they arrested for possible transfer into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody and deportation. Individual states signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the federal government as a framework for their county-by-county activation of Secure Communities. Counties were not required to activate immediately; their formal enactment frequently occurred later when prompted by ICE. We find that the date when a state signed an MOA consistently predicts a county’s increased probability of receiving ICE requests to hold noncitizens in detention, transferring detained noncitizens into ICE custody, and removing noncitizens from the country. This relationship operates most strongly in counties with preexisting enforcement infrastructure between local police and federal immigration authorities. By contrast, while we find that enactment dates are associated with increases in each outcome, pretreatment trends render these relationships statistically indeterminate. Our results highlight how multilayered relationships between local and federal authorities allow for policing to be used as a tool for facilitating the preemptive implementation of immigration enforcement across the country at the expense of noncitizens and their families and communities.
Prof. Michelle Jackson speaking about her new book The Division of Rationalized Labor. A copy of her book is in the foreground on the podium.
About 30 or so Stanford students and faculty eating lunch. A slideshow of books published in the Stanford Sociology Department are displayed on a screen in the background
A screenshot of a brief article in Contexts Magazine summarizing the research of Prof. Matt Clair and PhD candidate Sophia Hunt on morals in the legal profession. The title of the summary is "good lawyer, bad lawyer" and contains an image of a law school graduate with a sign that reads "NOW WHAT?" The brief article was written by Elena G. van Stee. 
A group of colleagues seated, listening to Prof. David Grusky at a podium speaking about Prof. Mark Granovetter. A slide of Mark Granovetter and people attending on Zoom are projected behind the podium.
A graduate giving a speech from the stage facing the audience and away from the camera