From borders to neighborhoods: explaining the shift toward state and local immigration law enforcement in the United States.

Immigration law enforcement has historically been a federal responsibility. The 1996 enactment of section §287 (g) of the Illegal Immigrant Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act represented a major change, allowing state and local officers to be trained to perform the legal functions of immigration officers through Memorandums of Understanding (MOAs) with the federal government. Despite this change, few states utilized the MOA process until after the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. Following the attacks, there has been a steady increase in both the number of MOAs and other forms of local and state immigration enforcement (such as Arizona's SB 1070). This thesis argues that the shift toward local immigration policy activism is a result of the post-9111 political atmosphere, the repeated failure of comprehensive immigration reform, and the rise of new migrant destinations. An analysis of these factors points to the primarily symbolic nature of local immigration enforcement initiatives.