Contexts of Contestation: How Competing Logics of the State Enable and Constrain Immigrant Civic and Political Participation.

This article examines how state-level immigration policies—specifically inclusionary public benefits policies and exclusionary law enforcement policies—interact to shape civic and political participation among immigrants in the United States. Using data from the 2016 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey (CMPS) across thirty states, the study finds that inclusive public benefits policies tend to increase immigrant engagement, while exclusionary law enforcement policies reduce it; however, the negative effects of exclusionary policies attenuate and often nullify the positive effects of inclusionary policies. The impact of law enforcement policies is particularly pronounced for Latinx immigrants compared to Asians and affects both citizens and noncitizens, highlighting racial-ethnic and citizenship-based disparities in civic participation. The findings underscore the complex, cross-cutting tensions within state immigration policy that simultaneously integrate and exclude immigrants, influencing patterns of civic stratification and political inequality.