Immigration Arrests and Educational Impacts: Linking ICE Arrests to Declines in Achievement, Attendance, and School Climate and Safety in California

Abstract

With increased tensions and political rhetoric surrounding immigration enforcement in the United States, schools are facing greater challenges in ensuring support for their students of immigrant and Latinx origin. This study examined the associations between county-level immigration arrests and academic achievement, absenteeism, and measures of school climate and safety for students in the California CORE districts. Using ordinary least squares regression analyses with year, grade, school, and student fixed effects, we found that immigration arrests corresponded to declines in academic achievement, attendance, and various measures of school climate and safety for Latinx students and Latinx students who were English learners. We also find small declines in measures of school climate and safety for students who ever received special education services via an Individualized Education Program. Associations were strongest for arrests that occurred during the Trump administration compared with those that occurred during the second term of the Obama administration. Policy implications are discussed.

Repercussions of a Raid: Health and Education Outcomes of Children Entangled in Immigration Enforcement

“…Consistent with prior research (Bellows, 2021; Kirksey, 2020; Kirksey & Sattin‐Bajaj, 2021; Kirksey et al., 2020), we observed a substantial spike of nearly 15 percentage points in COI student daily absence rates in the week immediately following the raid in Hamblen County, and an estimated 33 percent increase in the monthly absence rate in the raid month compared to average absence rates in prior Aprils. Our estimate of the immediate increase in student absences is closer in magnitude to that of Kirksey (2020), who specifically investigated incidents involving high numbers of immigration arrests.…”

“…Indeed, the second level of Dreby's (2012) pyramid of children's burdens represents the repercussions of persistent fear among children who live with unauthorized family members, which includes approximately 5 to 6 million children, of whom greater than 80 percent are U.S. citizens. An expanding body of research associates the protracted fear and stress these children endure with poorer health outcomes and academic performance, more school absences, and lower socio-emotional well-being (Amuedo-Dorantes & Lopez, 2015;Brabeck & Xu, 2010;Kirksey & Sattin-Bajaj, 2021;Kirksey et al, 2020;Yoshikawa, 2011). Hainmueller et al (2017) showed that, alternatively, when protecting immigrant mothers from the fear and stress of deportation through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, their children had 50 percent fewer diagnoses of adjustment and anxiety disorder.…”

“…In her research on the 287(g) program in North Carolina (in which state and local law enforcement officers cooperate with federal enforcement of immigration laws), Bellows (2021) showed that these immigration enforcement efforts decrease student engagement in school through their effects on increasing rates of chronic absenteeism (missing 15 or more days per year). Kirksey and Sattin-Bajaj (2021) examined the effects of immigration arrests in California and found that for each standard deviation increase in immigration arrests, student absenteeism increased by 5 percentage points and secondary math achievement declined by 0.17 standard deviations.…”

“…These additional burdens borne by children living with unauthorized family members also affect their educational engagement, with research showing that they are more likely to be disruptive in the classroom, absent from school, held back to repeat a grade, or to drop out of school (Amuedo-Dorantes & Lopez, 2015;Bellows, 2021;Capps et al 2007;Chaudry et al 2010;Kirksey & Sattin-Bajaj, 2021). Amuedo-Dorantes and Lopez (2015) examined the intensification of interior immigration enforcement in the U.S. and found that its largest negative impacts were on younger children, ages 6 to 13 years, whose probability of repeating a grade rose by 6 percent and likelihood of dropping out of school increased by a staggering 25.2 percent.…”

“…2007; Chaudry et al. 2010; Kirksey & Sattin‐Bajaj, 2021). Amuedo‐Dorantes and Lopez (2015) examined the intensification of interior immigration enforcement in the U.S. and found that its largest negative impacts were on younger children, ages 6 to 13 years, whose probability of repeating a grade rose by 6 percent and likelihood of dropping out of school increased by a staggering 25.2 percent.…”