Presidential partisanship compared to migration push factors: a study of undocumented migration in the U.S.

Abstract

With the recent re-election of Donald Trump to the presidential office, many Americans are worried about what is to come concerning immigration policy, particularly for those who are undocumented. While immigration is a highly divisive issue in political debates, the reality of implementation indicates that both the democratic and republican parties are harsh on undocumented migration. I hypothesize that the immigration policies of the United States are reactionary in relation to undocumented migration and therefore rely more heavily on the push factors of migration from foreign countries rather than the political ideology of the president. The findings of this paper ultimately support my hypothesis that presidential ideology is not statistically significant in handling undocumented migration. However, they also conclude that push factors do not fully explain the trends in undocumented migration either. Keywords International Relations, Undocumented Migration, Political Ideology, Push Factors, Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George Bush, Joe Biden