The impact of Secure Communities on the labor market outcomes of immigrant women

Abstract

The United States deported nearly 400,000 unauthorized immigrants under the Secure Communities (SC) interior immigration enforcement program between 2008 and 2014. This paper uses variation in the intensity of deportations across immigrants’ country of origin and city of residence to assess the labor market consequences of SC on foreign‐born women. We find no effect on the total number of employed immigrant women, but both annual wages and the number of hours worked fell. Moreover, SC induced a shift toward occupations with lower average pay and education requirements, higher exposure to hazards, and less contact with others. This is consistent with a chilling effect in labor markets such that some foreign‐born women were willing to sacrifice better pay and working environments for the ability to avoid detection.