Congress & Immigration Policy

Catalog description

This course will provide students with a comprehensive orientation to the making, implementation, and analysis of Congressional-level Immigration Policy. Scholars have recently argued that partisan polarization is on the rise, modern era partisanship maps onto ideology, and legislators' votes within many policy realms can be explained in liberal-conservative terms; however, immigration policy is dissimilar. For as long as formalized immigration policy is old, there have been ebbs and flows in legislators' willingness to liberalize immigration policy, both across and within parties. Legislators' positions on immigration are a key component of new cleavages that do not fully overlap with the left-right. For example, Democrats may court the Latino vote through support of liberal immigration policy. However, Democrats may also be restrictive because of traditional ties to unions, suggesting that foreign guest-workers would have an adverse impact on the working conditions of natives.