Vanished Classmates: The Effects of Local Immigration Enforcement on School Enrollment


Published online in:
American Educational Research Journal
July 2, 2019

Thomas Dee, Stanford University
Mark Murphy, Stanford University

Abstract
For over a decade, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has formed partnerships allowing local police to enforce immigration law (i.e., identifying and arresting undocumented residents). Prior studies, using survey data with self-reported immigrant and citizenship status, provide mixed evidence on their demographic impact. This study presents new evidence based on Hispanic public-school enrollment. We find local ICE partnerships reduce the number of Hispanic students by 10 percent within 2 years. We estimate partnerships enacted before 2012 displaced over 300,000 Hispanic students. These effects are concentrated among elementary-school students. We find no corresponding effects on the enrollment of non-Hispanic students and no evidence that ICE partnerships reduced pupil-teacher ratios or the percent of students eligible for the National School Lunch Program.

Read the news release - "Study Snapshot: Vanished Classmates: The Effects of Local Immigration Enforcement on School Enrollment," here