Emerald Fikejs

This study examines non-Hispanic White American adults’ opinions regarding the use of immigration detention. More specifically, this study tests whether three types of information about the immigration detention system in the U.S. affect respondents’ views regarding the appropriate extent to which immigration detention is used.

My main research question is: Do participants randomized to receive one of three informational treatments regarding immigration detention show lower support for immigration detention? I hypothesize that respondents in each of the three information treatments (criminality, legal protections, and human rights, explained below) will express lower amounts of support for immigration detention’s employment (as measured by the multiple-choice questions explained below), compared to a control group receiving information about iPhones’ share of the smartphone market.

The topics for the information treatment are: 1) Criminality: distinctions between the purposes of the immigration and criminal legal systems, with statistics regarding the percentage of detained migrants that have criminal records. 2) Legal protections: distinctions between the legal protections afforded defendants in criminal proceedings vs. immigration proceedings. 3) Human rights: findings from government and investigative reports regarding health concerns in immigration detention. 4) Control: information regarding iPhone’s market share in the U.S. as compared to Android. Each treatment is composed of three statements, and on the same page as each statement is a simple multiple-choice question intended to reinforce the information treatment.

Immigration is one of the most polarizing issues in American politics today. While Democrats have emphasized creating paths to legal status and Republicans have prioritized border security, neither party has devoted much attention to the detention of the immigrants who are the subject of these furious debates. The complexity of immigration detention's place in the legal system has subsequently escaped the court of public opinion, collapsed under the partisan divide on more prominent immigration policies. This project uses survey experiments to examine the effect of information regarding the immigration detention system on White Americans’ opinions regarding the country’s immigration detention policy and practices. Run in two parts, this project examines both respondents’ individualized decisions regarding hypothetical immigrants and broader policy preferences in the arena of immigration detention. This research will contribute to our understanding of Americans’ responsiveness to information regarding little-known bureaucratic processes within highly polarized policy spheres.