Andres Larrieu – Immigration Politics, Policymaking in the U.S.

Author: Andres Larrieu

TX 27: Michael Cloud should stop pandering

May 16, 2019 / Andres Larrieu / 3 Comments

Summary

Representative Michael Cloud argues that he supports tight border security and restrictive immigration politics to ultimately hinder drug cartels’ abilities to traffick illegal immigrants into the US. Although he claims to have the immigrants’ best interest in mind, previous research shows that his proposals not only have failed in the past, but they also have backfired and worsened conditions for illegal immigrants. It’s understandable that he panders in favor of national security, considering that his district is mostly Republican. However, if he truly wants to help immigrants as he so claims, Rep. Cloud needs to stop voting strictly along party lines on immigration, and he should start considering more permissive immigration policies.

Rep. Cloud needs to stop pandering and start acting to help immigrants.

Representative Michael Cloud wrote a column for the Victoria Advocate a week after the government shutdown. In this article, Rep. Cloud addresses the issues with the state of immigration politics in Washington and the perceived influence cartels have on immigration. He wrote that cartels “maintain an outsized influence” in Mexican and Central American governments, and the lack of a tough border security “allows cartels to amass profits of tens of billions of dollars each year smuggling drugs and humans into our country”. Afterwards, he argued that because there is not enough deterrence against illegal immigrants, cartels took control of the illegal immigration transportation, pushing the immigrants “in danger of human trafficking or death.” Therefore, he calls for strengthening border security to solve “a humanitarian and criminal crisis that is driven by cartels”. It’s completely true that cartels have influenced Latin American governments, and that their crimes have harmed hundreds of thousands. However, if he wanted to truly solve the immigrant crisis, he would actually support more permissive policy that would give more support to illegal immigrants and take them in as refugees instead of leaving them to the mercy of cartels.

His proposal in the article, increasing the funding for Customs and Border Protection (CBP), is not unprecedented. According to Princeton University Professor Douglas Massey, funding has increased throughout the past few decades, with the only result that the cost of detainment has risen dramatically. Adjusted for inflation, each apprehension cost $98 in 1983, while it cost over $12,500 in 2016 (Douglas Massey, Mexican Migration Project). As well, this same research shows that while militarizing the border did decrease illegal migration from major entry points, it only pushed immigrants into alternative, more dangerous routes, while encouraging them to not return as migrating became more challenging. Therefore, his argument that increasing CBP funding would help was actually the reason that forced immigrants to take these dangerous routes, worsening the humanitarian crisis at the border.

Rep. Cloud claims that tighter border security will help solve the humanitarian crisis, but research already shows that tighter border security actually helped worsen it. Therefore, why would he support these tight measures on immigration? For starters, the district is solidly Republican, and even if it is majority Latino, it has a small foreign-born population of around 8%. UCSD Professor Tom K. Wong shows that the smaller the foreign born, the less support there will be for immigrant rights in Congress. As well, research has shown that being Republican is the main predictor to determine whether a representative will vote in favor of restrictive immigration policy (Casellas and Leal, 2013). Some might say that the high Latino population should appeal to pro-immigrant views. That’s usually the case in contested elections when the Latino population is a significant minority. Rep. Cloud’s TX-27 is around 53% Latino, which should lean towards pro-immigrant policy. However, that’s usually the case when the Latinos are not the predominant social group, or in-group (McDermott, 2013). In this case, Latinos have to be well integrated, and the fact that Rep. Cloud is married to a Mexican woman shows evidence of this integration. As well, the district is not contested at all, with Rep. Cloud winning reelection in 2018 with 60% of the vote. Considering a significant portion of the Latino population is supporting Rep. Cloud, the Latino vote does not influence his decision. Another reason for his votes in Congress is the perception of competition between whites and other minorities. Even if Latinos represent a majority of the district, 37% of the district is white, and this proportion is currently shrinking. Whenever these trends happen, the white majority tends to support restrictive immigration policies (Abrajano & Singh, 2015).

Considering the research, it is not surprising that Rep. Cloud has voted along party lines on every immigration bill. It is also not surprising that he supports every common Republican measure, as his website shows. Amongst these, he supports building a wall, interior enforcement to detain those who overstay their visas, more funding for the CBP, and defunding sanctuary cities. However, just like he did in his column for Victoria Advocate, he placed the blames and concerns for border security on the drug cartels, an argument that much more people can rally behind. At the end of the day, these policies actually put the burden on illegal immigrants who in many cases are fleeing dangerous situations.

I recommend that Rep. Cloud considers more permissive immigration policies, even if this means moving away from his party on certain key votes. Just like he says in his column, “there should be nothing partisan about ending a humanitarian and criminal crisis.” I agree with this statement. Still, research shows that the methods he is pursuing have become inefficient and worsened the problem. I understand he votes along party lines in Congress and justifies it as a national security threat against cartels. However, to truly solve the humanitarian and criminal crisis, Rep. Cloud should not support increasing funding for the CBP, nor defunding sanctuary cities, and especially not building an impractical, inefficient, and harshly divisive wall.

TX-27: a Study on Local Media’s Treatment of Immigrants

May 16, 2019 / Andres Larrieu / 0 Comments

Slide 1:

To perform a media analysis around immigration, it is imperative to understand the effects of the media’s framing of immigrants. First, it has been proven that framing the news with a perspective influences the audience’s perception of immigrants (Adidas, Lo, and Platas 2018). Second, a study of the NYT shows that not only has the volume of immigration coverage increased dramatically in the past few decades, but immigrants are mostly perceived badly (Abrajano & Singh, 2015). This only worsens once it is considered that the district has seen an increase of 2.5pp in the Latino population, which should encourage anti-immigrant sentiment (Hopkins 2010; Enos 2014). Finally, proximity to the border influences how salient immigration is, with border state residents considering it a major issue (Dunaway, Brandon, & Abrajano, 2010). Considering these conclusions from previous research, it is likely that TX-27 will have local news that focus on incidents around immigration, adding a negative bias towards immigrants.

As well, it is important to take the district’s basic electoral and demographic compositions. Electorally, Republican Michael Cloud represents the solidly Republican district. Demographically, Latinos make just over 50% of the district, with most of the remaining population comprising of non-Hispanic Whites (39%). As mentioned earlier, the district’s composition is changing. This change is mostly accentuated in Victoria, Representative Cloud’s hometown, which saw a 4.6pp change in the Latino population between 2012-2017. Otherwise, the district’s largest city, Corpus Christi, has an increase in Latino population closer with the district’s average at 2.3pp.

Slide 2:

To test whether the research holds true, this assignment covers two local sources from district TX27’s biggest cities: Corpus Christi’s KRISTV and Victoria’ Victoria Advocate. This study will check the number of articles published between the beginning of the government shutdown (12/11/2018) to a week after the shutdown was over (01/31/2018). To search the articles, I used the keywords “immigration” and “border”.

To test the two predictions, I measured the articles’ political scope and immigrant framing. First, I analyzed the Scope, or specifically the scope of the issue the article is covering. Scope can range from a national bill to a minor, local incident with immigrants. Second, I analyzed the Immigrant Framing; that is, whether individual immigrants were framed negatively, positively, or neutrally. Since these are subjective, I chose specific characteristics for each category:

For positive framing, there should be either an empathetic framing of immigrants, or an analysis of the benefits of immigration.
Neutral framing usually focuses on policy while maintaining distance from immigrants. Otherwise, neutral news articles will only include cold, factual news stories.
Negative framing will include a version of a threat narrative, or call for support for restrictive policies. Even worse, it could attempt to dehumanize immigrants through different methods.

Slide 3:

After doing some research, the Victoria Advocate proved to consider immigration a much more salient issue than KRISTV, publishing 22 articles about the topic within the time frame studied against the latter’s mere 4. Even more important, Representative Cloud wrote a column in the Victoria Advocate a week after the shutdown was over.

Otherwise, most articles, over half of the total articles studied (14/26) covered national news, with all of KRISTV’s articles covering national news. Seven articles covered local news, and five covered state news. Then, most articles had a neutral framing of immigrants, usually pointing facts or focusing on the conflict between Democrats and Republicans to end the shutdown, with all 4 articles from KRISTV maintaining this neutral reporting. Otherwise, news from the Victoria Advocate covered immigrants negatively more often than positively, introducing both cases of dehumanizing and elements of a threat narrative.

Slide 4:

The research on this articles hold up to the two main predictions that took place in the beginning of the research project:

While a significant portion of articles cover local news, national news are covered more frequently. Interestingly, the issue of immigration seems a lot more salient in Victoria than it is in Corpus Christi, as predicted because of Victoria’s more significant demographic changes.
Research suggested that the news would be a lot harsher on immigrants than they truly were. Most articles ended up following neutral tones, while they tend to be frame immigrants negatively. It is possible that the high Latino population of the two cities would not allow immigrants to be framed too negatively.

However, this study sets up further research to answer different questions:

Representative Cloud’s article is a call for further research. Thus study labeled his column as neutral because he took elements from the threat narrative while trying to empathize with immigrants. He appeals to national security. However, he is careful not to blame these threats to all immigrants. Instead, he blames Mexican drug cartels for creating a humanitarian crisis for illegal immigrants. This way, he manages to empathize with immigrants while calling for restrictive policies.
Although right now the only suggestion that immigration does not seem salient in Corpus Christi is that the change of population is not significant, the high Latino population suggests there should be more research.

TX-27: Demographic shifts and their effects on an immigrant’s experience

May 1, 2019 / Andres Larrieu / 0 Comments

Slide 1:

The district’s demographics are somewhat complicated to analyze because of the 2012 redistricting in Texas. Current TX 27 currently covers most of the land from district TX 14 before the redistricting. Current TX 27 includes the city of Corpus Christi, a predominantly Latino city. This incorporation of the city into the new district explains the dramatic rise in the Latino population in 2012 with respect to 2007. It is safest to analyze the recent demographic changes from 2012 to 2017, considering they too provide important changes. While the small Asian and Black minorities barely changed, the Latino population actually grew by +2.5pp, just about as much as the White only population dropped (-2.6pp). Considering it is only a five year span, it is a significant enough demographic shift to apply the research from this semester.

Slide 2:

This assignment will analyze the research from three different areas: (1) The immigrant’s experience, (2) the influence of media on the perspective of immigrants, (3) an immigrant’s reception, or local sentiment towards immigrants and how they shape the immigrant’s experience.
1. Immigrant advocacy groups in a district provide most of the support for immigrant integration (de Graauw 2008).
2. The framing of immigrants on media does have an influence on the audience’s perspective (Abarajano, Marisa, and Singh 2009). Although immigrants are usually framed negatively, there is some evidence that media in Spanish tends to frame immigrants more favorably than their English counterparts. (Adida, Lo, and Platas 2018). Finally, proximity to the border makes the issue more salient to media (Branton, Regina P. and Johanna Dunaway. 2009).
3. A community with shifting demographics can have stronger anti-immigrant sentiments based on the saliency of the issue (Hopkins 2010). All these pieces of research will affect the general experience of immigrants in the community, especially of Latino immigrants.

Slide 3:

Although the research would seem to show clear paths, TX 27 is a contradicting district. It has a majority Latino population, while it also has a Republican majority. Regardless, there should be some sort of backlash due the decreasing white population, and the small size of foreign born residents should also play a roll.
1. Because of the small foreign born population, and the strong Republican support, it is likely that the government does not support foreign born residents enough to secure integration. This small immigrant population also suggests that pro-immigrant advocacy groups are not as powerful nor relevant. However, it is possible that pro-Latino groups work to achieve this integration.
2. Spanish media around the region should frame immigrants more positively, while English media will frame it more negatively than its Spanish counterpart.
3. There is likely to be an anti-immigrant sentiment because of the shifting Latino and White demographics. In general, it is likely that there will not be a strong pro-immigrant sentiment. The decreasing White community will probably oppose immigration. However, there is likely to be a strong pro-Latino sentiment, which helps integrate incoming Latino immigrants.

Slide 4:

This research proposal is to test the 1st prediction. As a control, we will compare the results to CA 14, Nancy Pelosi’s district. This district has strong pro-immigrant advocacy groups, which will help contrast possible outcomes. First, we would ask both Latinos and foreign born residents of TX 27 the following questions:
 Do you feel well integrated in your community?
 Have you received help from a pro-immigration organization?
Then, we would check progress from pro-immigrant advocacy (and pro-Latino groups) groups to affect change locally. This can take the shape of lobbying, community organizing, or successful legislation passed. To narrow down the scope, we would only look at Corpus Christi and San Francisco within the span of 2007-2017. With these methods, we can test whether Latinos and immigrants feel welcome in their communities, and whether pro-immigrant organizations have helped narrow down the gap between residents and immigrants.

How positive framing the immigration crisis has even reached the White House

April 17, 2019 / Andres Larrieu / 0 Comments

According to different sources we’ve read this week, the mass media’s effect on people’s interpretation of the immigration crisis is powerful. Most media companies frame immigrants, especially Latino immigrants, in a negative or neutral light. There is some variation though, such as whether the news are delivered in a Spanish or English program, or the state’s proximity to the border. Regardless, Latino immigrants rarely have a positive portrayal in the media.

This week’s article argues much of the same, providing evidence that immigrants are contributing members of society. It argues that most immigrants, especially Latinos, are framed negatively. However, this argument brings to light a crying immigrant girl next to her mom, an image that perturbed Trump himself.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/06/27/the-news-media-usually-show-immigrants-as-dangerous-criminals-thats-changed-for-now-at-least/?utm_term=.bfa24844457a

Question: Would a more positive immigrant framing from the media possible influence voters enough to pressure the government to shift its current immigration strategy?