Unequal Justice Under Law Effects Of Immigration Detention On Removal Case Outcomes

Download or read book Unequal Justice Under Law: Effects of Immigration Detention on Removal Case Outcomes written by Alyssa M Snider and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines whether and how being detained may affect the outcome of an immigrant’s removal case. Prior research has shown that the government often fails to provide a meaningful and individualized reason that an immigrant should be detained. Given the arbitrariness of who is and is not detained during their immigration proceedings, one would expect that being detained should have no effect on the outcome of the court case. To examine the effects of detention on removal case outcomes, I use a public dataset containing case-level information about individuals in removal proceedings. I use these data to estimate several models using ordinary least squares regression to attempt to isolate the effects of detention and detention-related factors on case outcomes. The results of these regressions demonstrate that being detained during any part of the removal proceeding, and particularly at the time their case is decided, makes the individual more likely to be removed. In all models, individuals detained at the time their case is decided are at least 20 percentage points more likely to be removed than someone who was never detained. These results suggest that the existing immigration detention and court systems do not provide equal access to justice and due process to both detained and non-detained immigrants.