With support from the Russell Sage Foundation, political scientists Alex Street and Chris Zepeda-Millán, in collaboration with Michael Jones-Correa, conducted an online survey of more than 1,200 second generation Latinos to test whether socialization experiences are shaped by the responses of parents, children, and other political actors to the unique situation of U.S. citizens with undocumented parents. Among other consequences, they explore the effects of knowledge of deportations among second generation Latinos, especially on the evaluations of Democratic and Republican parties.

They discuss their findings in a new article for Social Science Quarterly. The abstract states:

The U.S. government continues to deport large numbers of undocumented Latino immigrants. In this new article, authors Alex Street, Chris Zepeda-Millan, and Michael Jones-Correa address the likely effects of these policies on Latino partisanship. Usiung a survey experiment to test the effects of information about mass deportations on partisan evaluations among young second-generation Latinos, the authors find that young U.S.-born Latinos view the Democratic Party as less welcoming when informed that deportations have been higher under President Obama than under his predecessor. Because most young U.S.-born Latinos are either weak partisans or political independents, there is wide scope for information effects among these potential voters. The authors find that mass deportation policies have the potential to reshape the partisanship and politics of Latinos for years to come.

Click here to read the report in full from Social Science Quarterly.