Hundreds of county jails are involved in detaining immigrants facing removal proceedings, a civil process. In exchange, local jails receive per diem payments from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Immigration detention thus presents a striking case of commodification of penal institutions for civil confinement purposes. Yet we know very little about the counties participating in this arrangement and the predictors of their participation over time. Our study offers the first systematic analysis of immigration detention in county jails using new and comprehensive panel data on jails across the United States. First, we find that the number of counties confining immigrant detainees steadily increased between 1983 and 2013, with the largest growth concentrated in small to medium sized, rural, and Republican counties located in the South. Second, our regression analyses point to a number of significant predictors of county participation in immigration detention: (a) worsening labor market conditions, combined with growing excess bed space for the criminal inmate population, (b) an increasing Latino population up to a certain threshold level, and (c) increasing Republican Party strength. These findings have important implications for current debates raging across the United States about the proper role of local communities in detaining immigrants.

中文翻译：

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监狱移民被拘留者：1983-2013 年县参与移民拘留的全国研究

数百个县监狱参与拘留面临驱逐程序的移民，这是一个民事程序。作为交换，当地监狱从移民和海关执法局获得每日津贴。因此，移民拘留是为民事监禁目的而将刑事机构商品化的一个引人注目的案例。然而，我们对参与这种安排的县及其参与的预测因素知之甚少。我们的研究使用美国各地监狱的新的综合面板数据，首次对县监狱中的移民拘留进行了系统分析。首先，我们发现 1983 年至 2013 年期间，关押移民被拘留者的县数量稳步增加，增幅最大的集中在位于南部的中小县、农村县和共和县。第二，我们的回归分析指出了县参与移民拘留的一些重要预测因素：(a) 劳动力市场状况恶化，加上犯罪囚犯人口的床位空间越来越大，(b) 拉丁裔人口增加到某个阈值水平，以及 (c) 增加共和党的实力。这些发现对当前在美国各地激烈争论当地社区在拘留移民方面的适当作用具有重要意义。