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Secure communities as immigration enforcement: How secure is the child care market?

Ali, Umair; Brown, Jessica H.; Herbst, Chris M.

Authors

Jessica H. Brown

Chris M. Herbst



Abstract

Immigrants comprise nearly 20% of the child care workforce in the U.S. This paper studies the impact of a major immigration enforcement policy, Secure Communities (SC), on the structure and functioning of the child care market. Relying on the staggered introduction of SC across counties between 2008 and 2014, we find that the program reduced children’s participation in center-based child care programs. The estimated reductions are substantially larger among advantaged children and in jurisdictions with a greater fraction of undocumented individuals. We also find that SC reduced the equilibrium supply and wages of immigrant and native workers in the center-based sector as well as the number of center-based facilities. There is no compensating increase in the home-based or private household sectors. Our findings suggest that immigrants and natives are likely to be complements in child care service production.

Citation

Ali, U., Brown, J. H., & Herbst, C. M. (2024). Secure communities as immigration enforcement: How secure is the child care market?. Journal of Public Economics, 233, Article 105101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2024.105101

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Mar 11, 2024
Online Publication Date Apr 4, 2024
Publication Date 2024-05
Deposit Date Jan 29, 2025
Journal Journal of Public Economics
Print ISSN 0047-2727
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 233
Article Number 105101
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2024.105101