Illegal Immigration & Interior Enforcement

lllegal immigration is a phenomenon confronted by many major immigrant-receiving countries, one that vexes policymakers and publics alike. While much of the focus may be on border enforcement, there are an array of interior enforcement policies aimed at identifying unauthorized immigrants for removal, including worksite enforcement, employment verification, jail-house screening, and state and local law enforcement activity. The research below delves into many facets of illegal immigration and enforcement occcuring away from national borders.

Recent Activity

Reports May 2023 Apuesta por la regularidad migratoria: Respuestas de América Latina y el Caribe frente a la crisis del desplazamiento venezolano By Luciana Gandini and Andrew Selee	Reports May 2023 Betting on Legality: Latin American and Caribbean Responses to the Venezuelan Displacement Crisis By Luciana Gandini and Andrew Selee
Articles May 10, 2023 Central American Immigrants in the United States By Nicole Ward and Jeanne Batalova	Commentaries May 2023 Regional Processing Centers: Can This Key Component of the Post-Title 42 U.S. Strategy Work? By Andrew Selee
Commentaries April 2023 A Post-Title 42 Vision for Migration Management Comes into Focus By Doris Meissner, Ariel G. Ruiz Soto and Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh	Articles April 27, 2023 Roxham Road Meets a Dead End? U.S.-Canada Safe Third Country Agreement Is Revised By Muzaffar Chishti and Julia Gelatt
Multimedia April 24, 2023 A Complex Picture: Diversifying Migration Flows & Policies at the U.S.-Mexico Border	Articles April 19, 2023 Crisis provoca emigración récord desde Nicaragua, superando los niveles de la Guerra Fría By Charles G. Ripley III

Pages

Reports November 2020 Building a New Regional Migration System: Redefining U.S. Cooperation with Mexico and Central America By Andrew Selee and Ariel G. Ruiz Soto	Policy Briefs November 2020 At the Starting Gate: The Incoming Biden Administration’s Immigration Plans By Doris Meissner and Michelle Mittelstadt
Reports November 2020 Immigration Data Matters By Jeanne Batalova, Andriy Shymonyak and Michelle Mittelstadt	Policy Briefs October 2020 Rethinking the U.S.-Mexico Border Immigration Enforcement System: A Policy Road Map By Doris Meissner
Reports September 2020 Immigration Enforcement and the Mental Health of Latino High School Students By Randy Capps, Jodi Berger Cardoso, Kalina Brabeck, Michael Fix and Ariel G. Ruiz Soto	Reports July 2020 Dismantling and Reconstructing the U.S. Immigration System: A Catalog of Changes under the Trump Presidency By Sarah Pierce and Jessica Bolter
Policy Briefs June 2020 Un año después del Acuerdo Estados Unidos-México: La transformación de las políticas migratorias mexicanas By Ariel G. Ruiz Soto	Policy Briefs June 2020 One Year after the U.S.-Mexico Agreement: Reshaping Mexico’s Migration Policies By Ariel G. Ruiz Soto

Pages

Migrantes venezolanos en la frontera colombiana.

Feature

April 11, 2023

El Cambio de los Patrones y Políticas Migratorios en las Américas

Los países de América Latina y el Caribe están siendo transformados por crisis políticas y económicas, nuevos acuerdos de libre circulación y otras tendencias. La cantidad de inmigrantes que viven en la región casi se ha duplicado desde 2010, un cambio increíble en un corto período de tiempo. Este artículo da sentido a una profunda transición en curso en el hemisferio occidental.

Policy Beat

March 30, 2023

Federal Judges Step into the Void to Set U.S. Immigration Policy

Virtually all major U.S. immigration policy reforms have faced lawsuits in recent years, giving federal judges wide latitude to shape national policy. The situation, which began during the Obama administration and has escalated, is a byproduct of congressional inaction and the emergence of immigration as a political wedge issue. This article tracks the trend, which has added new volatility to the immigration system, and places it in context.

A flag hangs at the vice president's residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, DC.

Spotlight

March 14, 2023

Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States

Want to check a fact about U.S. immigration? Interested in putting recent trends into perspective? This article compiles authoritative, up-to-date information about the U.S. immigrant population and how it has changed over time. Data cover immigrants' demographic, educational, and linguistic characteristics; their top states of residence; enforcement activities; refugees and asylum seekers; naturalization trends; visa backlogs; and more.

Crossers at the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border

Feature

March 7, 2023

Crisis Prompts Record Emigration from Nicaragua, Surpassing Cold War Era

A political crisis marked by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s growing authoritarianism has sparked the largest emigration in the country’s modern history. Hundreds of thousands have fled, including intellectuals, artists, and academics. They increasingly are heading beyond the traditional destination of Costa Rica, to the United States and beyond, as this article details.

A migrant from Tajikistan outside Moscow.

Feature

February 7, 2023

Post-Soviet Labor Migrants in Russia Face New Questions amid War in Ukraine

Millions of immigrants fill key sectors in Russia’s economy, help offset its demographic challenges, and support origin communities, particularly in Central Asia. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, many have also been pressured into joining the military, and meanwhile face continued marginalization by Russian society. This article outlines the key issues facing these migrants, some of which have been complicated by the fallout from the war.

Pages

International vs. National Protection for Refugees Event - David Fitzgerald

Video, Audio

April 10, 2019

International vs. National Protection for Refugees: Diverging Trends?

MPI's Kathleen Newland, Refugee Council USA's Mary Giovagnoli, and David Scott FitzGerald, author of Refuge beyond Reach, discuss how and why international and national responses to the rising challenge of refugee displacement are diverging.

Video, Audio

February 28, 2019

Una nueva política migratoria para una nueva era: Una conversación con la Secretaria de Gobernación Olga Sánchez Cordero

Durante su primera visita oficial a Washington, DC, la Secretaria de Gobierno Olga Sánchez Cordero presento un discurso público sobre la nueva política migratoria de México en el Instituto de Políticas Migratorias.

Video, Audio

February 28, 2019

A New Migration Policy for A New Era: A Conversation with Mexico's Interior Secretary Olga Sánchez Cordero

On her first official trip to Washington, DC, Secretary of the Interior Olga Sánchez Cordero offered a public address on Mexico’s new approach to migration policy at MPI. Her remarks and the event discussion were mostly conducted in Spanish, and this recording is of the simultaneous English interpretation.

flicrk CIDH visita la frontera de Colombia con Venezuela

Audio

January 31, 2019

Creatividad Dentro de la Crisis: Opciones Legales para Inmigrantes Venezolanos en América Latina

Convocamos un seminario en línea en la ocasión del lanzamiento del informe que describe donde se han radicado los migrantes venezolanos; las medidas que han utilizado los gobiernos latinoamericanos para regularizar el estatus legal de los migrantes venezolanos; y los esfuerzos por integrar a los recién llegados en sus nuevas comunidades de residencia.

Video, Audio

January 30, 2019

Creative Policy Responses in Latin America to the Venezuelan Migration Crisis

With more than 3 million Venezuelans having fled their country in crisis, this event features the release of an MPI-OAS report that examines the creative responses that host countries in Latin America are providing.

Recent Activity

Reports

February 2021

Back on the Table: U.S. Legalization and the Unauthorized Immigrant Groups that Could Factor in the Debate

With legalization of the U.S. unauthorized immigrant population back on the table, this report offers estimates and characteristics for subgroups that have particularly strong equities, including DREAMers, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients, and parents and spouses of U.S. citizens. It also traces past legalizations and details the range and scope of legalization options that policymakers have.

Policy Briefs

February 2021

Rewiring Migrant Returns and Reintegration after the COVID-19 Shock

Migrant returns and reintegration have been the subject of intense international debate in recent years, and the COVID-19 pandemic has added an extra layer of complexity as millions of migrants have been expelled or returned voluntarily. This policy brief explores the effects of the pandemic on migrant returns, reception, and reintegration, and how countries of origin and destination can improve their policies and partnerships going forward, with a focus on sustainable reintegration.

Articles

January 27, 2021

Biden Sets the Stage for a Remarkably Active First 100 Days on Immigration

The Biden administration has set the pace for what could be the most active first 100 days on immigration policy by any White House in recent memory—even that of predecessor Donald Trump. The efforts, which represent a dramatic break from the Trump administration's view of immigration as threat, are likely to meet stiff opposition on Capitol Hill and elsewhere. This article evaluates Biden's early actions and what they suggest about the White House's ambitions on immigration.

Reports

January 2021

Obscure but Powerful: Shaping U.S. Immigration Policy through Attorney General Referral and Review

Among the many executive action tools the Trump administration used to significantly rewrite U.S. immigration policy is an obscure but powerful legal authority known as the attorney general’s referral and review. This report examines how this power’s use and impact have changed over time, deep-rooted concerns about it that predate the Trump administration but that have grown due to its more frequent use, and ways to improve it going forward.

Commentaries

January 2021

Nearly 3 Million U.S. Citizens and Legal Immigrants Initially Excluded under the CARES Act Are Covered under the December 2020 COVID-19 Stimulus

The pandemic-recovery stimulus package that passed Congress in December rectified what many had viewed as a significant oversight in the earlier CARES Act: Its exclusion of U.S. citizens and legal immigrants in mixed-status families. MPI researchers estimate nearly 3 million U.S. citizens and legal immigrants excluded from the earlier legislation can receive the later relief, as well as qualify retroactively for the CARES Act payment, as this commentary explores.

Fact Sheets

December 2020

Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States: Stable Numbers, Changing Origins

After decades of growth, the number of unauthorized immigrants in the United States has remained largely stable since the 2008–09 recession. The group's demographics are changing, though, with a shrinking number of Mexicans and rising Asian and Central American arrivals. This fact sheet presents a profile of these 11 million individuals, including top origin countries; U.S. destinations; and age, education, job, income, home ownership, English proficiency, and other characteristics.

Commentaries

December 2020

How the Fear of Immigration Enforcement Affects the Mental Health of Latino Youth

The prevalence of mental-health symptoms among Latino high school students, immigrant and U.S. born alike, is closely related to their fears of immigration enforcement. And the situation may have worsened since the researchers sampled this population, given the COVID-19 pandemic and associated economic hardship have increased the stress on Latino communities that have been hit disproportionately hard, as this commentary explores.

Reports

December 2020

Construcción de un nuevo sistema migratorio regional: Redefiniendo la cooperación entre Estados Unidos con México y Centroamérica

Un desafío y una oportunidad clave que enfrentará la administración de Joe Biden será cómo abordar la cooperación regional en relación a la migración. Este informe explora la evolución de la movilidad entre los Estados Unidos, México y Centroamérica y presenta una estrategia para ampliar las oportunidades en cuanto a la migración legal, abordar necesidades humanitarias, fortalecer la aplicación de la ley y mitigar algunas de las fuerzas que provocan la emigración.

Programs

Topics see all >

Regions see all >

Data

Featured Publication

Programs

You are here

Illegal Immigration & Interior Enforcement

Recent Activity

Pages

Pages

Pages

Pages

Recent Activity

Pages