Legal Attitudes of Immigrant Detainees

Abstract

A substantial body of research shows that people's legal attitudes can have wide‐ranging behavioral consequences. In this article, I use original survey data to examine long‐term immigrant detainees’ legal attitudes. I find that the majority of detainees express a felt obligation to obey the law, and do so at a significantly higher rate than other U.S. sample populations. I also find that the detainees’ perceived obligation to obey U.S. immigration authorities is significantly related to their evaluations of procedural justice, as measured by their assessments of fair treatment while in detention. This finding remains robust controlling for a variety of instrumental and detainee background factors, including the detainees’ experiences with the legal system and legal authorities in their countries of origin. Finally, I find that vicarious procedural justice evaluations based on detainees’ assessments of how others are treated are as important to detainees’ perceived obligation to obey U.S. immigration authorities as their personal experiences of fair or unfair treatment. I discuss the broader implications of these findings and their contributions to research on procedural justice and legal compliance, and research on legal attitudes of noncitizens.

Investigating the Offending Histories of Undocumented Immigrants

“…On the other hand, undocumented immigrants may be less criminally involved than their peers as they actively work to not draw attention to themselves and risk deportation (Gottfredson 2004). Belief in the obligation to obey the law among immigrants exceeds that of US-born peers (Correia 2010;Kirk et al 2012;Piquero et al 2014;Rengifo & Fratello 2015) even among detained populations (Ryo 2017). In this vein, those who migrate to the US illegally are doing so, in large part, for economic opportunity, family reunification, and to flee violence (Chavez 2012;Massey et al 2014).…”

Representing Immigrants: The Role of Lawyers in Immigration Bond Hearings

“…As I discussed earlier, Colbert et al's study, for example, shows that defendants who had legal representation were more likely to feel that they had been treated fairly and respectfully during their hearings, and to express greater satisfaction with the legal system. Moreover, studies show that people's beliefs in the legitimacy of legal authority and trust in the legal system are central to their willingness to obey the law and to cooperate with legal authority (Sunshine and Tyler ; Tyler ), including immigration laws and immigration authorities (Ryo ). From this standpoint, whether and to what extent our immigration system might be fostering legal cynicism among noncitizens by failing to provide appointed counsel are critical topics for future inquiry (see Ryo ).…”

Relieving the Tension: Lay Immigration Lawyering and the Management of Legal Violence

“…Despite the interpersonal benefits it provides, especially to marginalized people wrestling with pain and fear, affective labor can act as an enabler of structural violence in that its tendency to quell feelings of alienation, intentionally or not, also help reduce the likelihood of dissent (e.g., Betancourt 2010). Emily Ryo's (2017) work on procedural justice in immigrant detention further attests to this. Many detainees, she observes, possess a stronger-than-usual inclination to obey the law, which changes depending on the treatment of their detained peers.…”