Figure 1. The U.S. Immigrant Climate generated by State City and County immigration legislation had become increasingly negative since 2005, bottomed in 2012 and has since become positive. The rate of change was most intense after 2016. (Updated May 2021)

Figure 1. The U.S. Immigrant Climate generated by State City and County immigration legislation had become increasingly negative since 2005, bottomed in 2012 and has since become positive. The rate of change was most intense after 2016. (Updated May 2021)

The ICI scores for the U.S. shown in Figure 1 above capture climates toward immigrants created by legislation enacted at the state, county, and city levels from 2005 to the end of 2020. A more negative score denotes a more hostile climate; a more positive score a more hospitable climate. The methodology we use to construct the ICI is described below.

In 2017, many states counties and cities reacted to the restrictionist immigration policies of the new administration by passing a large number of (mostly positive) immigration measures. This Trump Effect can be seen in Figure 2 below. The intensity of this sub-federal response since 2016 has moved the US ICI to positve territory.

The map in Figure 3 shows the ICI scores generated by county and city laws. Among the most active states, California and New Mexico cities and counties passsed more positive laws, Arizona and Florida cities and counties passed more negative laws, while Pennsylvania cities and counties were mixed in their immigrant laws.