Immigration Article of the Day: Law-Abiding Immigrants: The Incarceration Gap Between Immigrants and the US-born, 1870-2020 by Ram Abramitzky, Leah Platt Boustan, Elisa Jacome, Santiago Perez, and Juan Davis Torres

Photo of Ram Abramitzky

Law-Abiding Immigrants: The Incarceration Gap Between Immigrants and the US-born, 1870-2020 by Ram Abramitzky, Leah Platt Boustan, Elisa Jacome, Santiago Perez, and Juan Davis Torres, Stanford Law and Economics Olin Working Paper No. 591

Abstract

We provide the first nationally representative long-run series (1870-2020) of incarceration rates for immigrants and the US-born. As a group, immigrants have had lower incarceration rates than the US-born for 150 years. Moreover, relative to the US-born, immigrants’ incarceration rates have declined since 1960: immigrants today are 60% less likely to be incarcerated (30% relative to US-born whites). This relative decline occurred among immigrants from all regions and cannot be explained by changes in immigrants’ observable characteristics or immigration policy. Instead, the decline is part of a broader divergence of outcomes between less-educated immigrants and their US-born counterparts.

KJ