%0 Report
        %A Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina
%A Arenas-Arroyo, Esther
%A Wang, Chunbei
        %T Is Immigration Enforcement Shaping Immigrant Marriage Patterns?
        %D 2019
        %8 2019 Dec
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 12876
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp12876
        %X This paper identifies intermarriage (between non-citizens and citizens) as an important response mechanism to intensified immigration enforcement, particularly among Mexican non-citizens. Exploiting the temporal and geographic variation in the implementation of interior immigration enforcement from 2005 to 2017, we find that a one standard deviation increase in enforcement raises Mexican non-citizens' likelihood of marrying a U.S. citizen by 3 to 6 percent. Our results show that this effect is driven by a change in spousal preference. Both police-based and employment-based enforcement contribute to this impact. The analysis adds to a growing literature examining how immigrants respond to tightened enforcement and, importantly, sheds light on the recent growth of intermarriage among Mexican immigrants.
        %K family structure
%K undocumented immigrants
%K immigration enforcement
%K intermarriage
%K United States