LARC: Faculty & Staff - Emily Drew

Through this practice, people who are suspected of being “criminal aliens” can be stopped, detained and fingerprinted to check their status as citizens. Police officers are trained to act as ICE (immigration) enforcement under the auspices of and in the name of public safety. At the present time, the only data that exists about these practices is conducted by statisticians within ICE, and little is known about its effects on local communities and families regarding the policy and its practice. I am interested in collecting data to find out what the consequences of “Secure Communities” are for the jurisdictions in which it is being enforced in Oregon. Through in-depth interviews with people in the Willamette Valley who are affected by the policy, I will explore the effects on immigration policy as it is practiced through this initiative. This is a new project for me and the summer research will allow me to progress in two significant ways: (1) conduct a review of the literature regarding immigration policy effects, and (2) collect data through qualitative interviews.