dc.description.abstract | This dissertation seeks to understand the influence of non-governmental institutions
on local public policy outputs. Within immigration policy, current shifts in the
implementation of enforcement have allowed local law enforcement agencies to function
as extensions of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement leading to an
unprecedented rise in the deportations of immigrants from the interior of the country. By
examining the outputs of the Secure Communities program from 2009 through 2014, this
research evaluates how non-governmental institutions can influence the deportability of
immigrants within a community. In influencing the deportability of immigrants, nongovernmental
institutions alter Secure Communities outputs. The first part of this
dissertation takes an empirical focus on theorizing how language as an institutional
characteristic serves as a mechanism of representative bureaucracy. Using the theory of
representative bureaucracy, linguistic congruence between local law enforcement agents
and policy target should lead to decreased policy outputs. Using the Law Enforcement
Management and Administration Survey, the results indicate that language can function as
active representation decreasing Secure Communities outputs, but only in counties with
small immigrant communities. The second section of this dissertation is a multi-method
study that develops a conceptual framework for the philanthropic sector’s influence on
public policy. Beginning with the empirical analysis, the first part of the framework
focuses on establishing the link between the philanthropic sector's grant making patterns
and immigration policy outputs. The results indicate an incredibly small effect between
philanthropic foundations' immigration-related grant making patterns and the identification
of deportable immigrants. To understand the relationship between the philanthropic sector
and policy outputs, the final part of this study takes a qualitative approach to study how
nonprofit grant recipients and their work with the immigrant community alters immigrant
deportability. The two studies together develop a conceptual framework that provides
insights into how philanthropic funding translates into redefining citizenship at the
community level with the aim to reduce the deportability of the immigrant community.
This dissertation provides insights into how non-governmental institutions can shape the
concept of citizenship and alter policy through citizen-state feedback. | en |