Uncovering Evidence That Border-Crossing Sanctions Work

The 2022 winner of IDA’s Larry D. Welch Award for Best External Publication is “Deterring Illegal Entry: Migrant Sanctions and Recidivism in Border Apprehensions,” published in American Economic Journal: Economic Policy. The authors used previously unavailable records on Mexican nationals who had been apprehended for illegal entry into the U.S. to produce estimates of their being re-apprehended after U.S. sanctions were imposed in 2008. Their findings imply that new U.S. administrative sanctions may be a cost-effective strategy for deterring illegal entry, an important step in designing viable immigration policy.