The consequences of policy layering: interactions of policy and context

Over the past decade, the United States government has continued to pass laws that punish the undocumented foreign-born Latino population. While scholars have studied the effects of these kinds of hostile policies across many groups, much of this work has contradictory findings. To date, political science lacks a consistent theory to reconcile and explain these inconsistent findings. This dissertation is an attempt to resolve this issue. I argue that because immigration policy within the United States is not implemented equally across space, the Latino community will not respond uniformly.

Furthermore, even as new laws are introduced, old laws remain in place. This interaction can lead to different political outcomes for members of the same community, depending on where they live. This manuscript also seeks to identify the other concerns this dynamic presents, such as decreased trust in government for communities of color and long-term impact on democracy.