“Policing Immigrants is one of the few books to comprehensively analyze the devolution of immigration enforcement into the ‘patchwork’ of policies and practices that defines contemporary immigration policy in the United States. Drawing on a large cache of original data, the authors trace in careful detail the historical development of the variations across local jurisdictions and provide clear and in-depth analysis of how devolution is proceeding, including the challenges and implications. The book makes an important contribution.”

Kitty Calavita, author of Invitation to Law and Society

“How to address immigration is among the most significant political issues in the United States. With the political parties increasingly polarized on whether or how to integrate the eleven million undocumented immigrants presently in the country, Policing Immigrants makes a major contribution to our understanding of US legal policy on immigration and will contribute to the debate for years to come. No other book so well describes the dramatic variations in local immigration enforcement or the implications for local communities and federal policy.”

Charles R. Epp, author of Pulled Over: How Police Stops Define Race and Citizenship

“This timely book exposes the ragged edges of federalism. What many in Washington think is a federal problem calling for national solutions has become an inward-looking and highly varied set of practices reflecting local priorities and politics. These play themselves out differently everywhere, leaving migrants caught up in this morass to an uncertain fate. What is certain is that this political struggle is far from over. This important book should play a major role in clarifying the magnitude of the contradictions that are at work in the immigration debate.”

Wesley G. Skogan, author of Police and Community in Chicago: A Tale of Three Cities

"Although these scholars are not the first to argue that immigration enforcement varies widely across localities, no other studies have covered this topic with such extraordinary breadth. The book skillfully distills the complex and dynamic landscape of immigration policing, making it accessible to specialists and non-specialists alike. . . . This is timely and essential reading for scholars, students, and practitioners interested in policing, immigration enforcement, and immigrant–police relations."

Theoretical Criminology