American Immigration Microfederalism: Sanctuaries, Restrictionist Jurisdictions, and Administrative Conflict

This article explains the rise of microfederalism in migration and integration policy in the United States. Power over immigration is traditionally assigned to the federal government, but the States and localities play central roles in providing services to unauthorized migrants due to gaps in congressional policy. Microfederal jurisdictions have responded pragmatically, according to their different policy preferences. Restrictionist jurisdictions seek to participate formally in federal enforcement, supplement enforcement with their independent measures, or by litigation realign federal enforcement priorities to match their own. Sanctuary jurisdictions employ affirmative and defensive policies to integrate migrants and shield unauthorised migrants' data against federal discovery. Policy competition and preference maximization favour non-interference with restrictionist and sanctuary microfederal policies. Nonetheless, the Obama administration challenged restrictionist jurisdictions' policies by federal pre-emption litigation. Similarly, the Trump administration has asserted federal supremacy and will seek federal pre-emption of sanctuary jurisdictions' integrative projects by resorting to broad claims of federal power at odds with local experimentation.