Partisanship, Not Spanish: Explaining Municipal Ordinances Affecting Undocumented Immigrants *

ABSTRACT: This chapter seeks to advance our understanding of local government ordinances on issues related to unauthorized immigrant residents including day labor markets, housing, unlicensed businesses, and cooperation with federal immigration authorities. We attempt to answer the question of why such ordinances are considered, passed, or fail to pass in some municipalities and not others. Some factors expected to explain the consideration and passage of restrictionist ordinances were demographic changes, labor market outcomes, and political factors. One of the strongest explanations for restrictionist versus “pro-immigrant” proposals is the proportion of Republicans and Democrats in the county. Controlling for demographic characteristics, Republican areas are twice as likely to propose restrictionist ordinances, and one half as likely to propose “pro-immigrant” ones. Similar effects can be found when examining passage of such legislation as the relevant outcome. Other factors, such as the growth of the Latino population and the size of linguistically-isolated Spanish-speaking households, were not associated with a greater likelihood of proposing or passing restrictionist legislation. Thus, demographic factors are not as important as political factors in accounting for ordinances passed by local governments related to unauthorized immigration, either pro or con.