Race Relations, Black Elites, and Immigration Politics: Conflict, Commonalities, and Context

This paper investigates the question of whether and how race and race relations affect state legislators' support for restrictive immigration policy. Focusing on the nine new immigration destinations in the US Southeast, we compare the roll call votes cast by African American and White Democratic state legislators on 196 restrictive immigration measures proposed between 2005 and 2012. Overall, the majority of Black Democratic legislators support restrictive immigration legislation, although at a consistently lower rate than White Democratic legislators. We test hypotheses that Black-White differences in support for restrictive immigration legislation depend upon the material resources at stake and the symbolic significance associated with specific legislation. Using bill topic to measure these conditions, we find that Black and White Democrats equally support immigrant "competition" bills on employment topics. Black Democratic legislators are less likely than their White counterparts to support immigration bills on Black-immigrant "commonalities" topics related to civil rights issues: voter ID regulations, education, police, and omnibus restrictions. Further, for civil rights bills only, district threat indicators such as a rapidly growing district Latino population are much more likely to increase support for restrictive immigration bills among White Democratic legislators than among Black Democratic legislators. Some district characteristics even evoke a commonalities response from African American Democratic legislators, reducing their support for restrictive legislation. Our research thus expands the competition/commonalities debate and highlights the complexities and contingencies of race relations and state policymaking in the twenty-first century.