Illegal Immigration: The Trump Effect

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Date

2021-06-03

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Publisher

Private Enterprise Research Center, Texas A&M University

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed the emergence of increasingly provocative anti-immigrant politicians in both Europe and the United States. The authors examine whether the 2016 election of Donald Trump, who made illegal immigration and border enforcement a centerpiece of his campaign, reduced illegal immigration into the U.S. The authors exploit the fact the election result was widely unexpected and thus generated a large, overnight change in expected immigration policy and rhetoric. Migration flows are compared before and after the election and findings show that while it reduced immigration among deported Mexicans and at least temporarily among Central Americans, it had no effect on the overall inflow of unauthorized Mexican workers.

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PublicFinance

Keywords

Immigration, U.S. presidential election, trump, Mexico, Central America, PublicFinance

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