Research Guides: PLCY 401: Contemporary Issues in Public Policy: Start Here

Start Here

Sage Reference Collection
Online versions of published reference works from SAGE. A great place to begin your research.

Congressional Publications
Access to the full text of congressional publications. Includes: hearings, legislative histories, committee prints and reports, House and Senate documents, Congressional Record, Serial Set, CRS Reports, bills, public laws, regulations...
Congressional hearings, public issues, legislation, history, and legal research.

CRS Reports (Congressional Research Service) are produced by the public policy research arm of Congress and are heavily researched and written by experts in the field on legislative issues. CRS Reports are available fulltext from 1916 to the present.

Access via the Congressional Publications (Proquest) database
Follow these steps:

1. Document Types
Either keep Select All, or deselect and choose CRS Reports and Browse Topics.
(If you keep Select All, you will have the opportunity to limit document type within results)

2. Keep the search field to: All fields except full text

3. Enter Search Terms = keywords. Example:
immigration
immigration and enforcement

4. Limit by date if need be

5. Results are sorted by Relevance (default), can change to Sort by Date (most recent first) if too many results

Everyone can probably use these CRS reports:
Sources for Frequently Requested Immigration Statistics. Updated July 2, 2021 (R45315) Sarah W. Caldwell, Senior Research Librarian (scaldwell@crs.loc.gov, 7-9712)

Primer on U.S. Immigration Policy. William A. Kandel Analyst in Immigration Policy Updated July 1, 2021

Congressional Publications CRS Reports Immigration Enforcement

Some of these titles might be helpful. To locate additional books, use WorldCat (the catalog) and:
1. follow the subject headings for any of the books listed (see below)

2. Search using keywords (see the tab labeled Search Strategies - connectors need to be capitalized for worldcat)
(immigration OR immigrant*) AND (policy OR policies)

Books Catalog Following Subject Headings

Aftermath: deportation law and and the new American diaspora by Daniel Kanstroom
Call Number: MCK STKS KF4842 .K38 2012
Publication Date: 2012
Examines the current deportation system in the United States, the aftermath effects, and the political, social and legal issues.
Crossing Borders: migration and citizenship in the twentieth-century United States by Dorothée Schneider
Call Number: MCK STKS JV6450 .S345 2011
Publication Date: 2011
"Aspiring immigrants to the United States make many separate border crossings in their quest to become Americans - in their home towns, ports of departure, U.S. border stations, and in American neighborhoods, courthouses, and schools. In a book of remarkable breadth, Dorothee Schneider covers both the immigrants' experience of their passage from an old society to a new one and American policymakers' debates over admission to the United States and citizenship. Bringing together the separate histories of Irish, English, German, Italian, Jewish, Chinese, Japanese, and Mexican immigrants, the book opens up a fresh view of immigrant aspirations and government responses."
Immigration Outside the Law by Hiroshi Motomura
Call Number: e-book
Publication Date: 2014
In Immigration Outside the Law, acclaimed immigration law expert Hiroshi Motomura takes a neutral, legally-accurate approach in his attention and responses to the questions surrounding those whom he calls "unauthorized migrants." In a reasoned and careful discussion, he seeks to explain why unlawful immigration is such a contentious debate in the United States and to offer suggestions for what should be done about it.
Encyclopedia of American Immigration by James Ciment; Immanuel Ness
Call Number: e-book
Publication Date: 2001
This richly illustrated set is the definitive reference on American immigration from both historic and contemporary perspectives. It traces the scope and sweep of U.S. immigration from the earliest colonial settlements to the present, focusing on critical issues as well as the groups of people involved.
White Backlash by Marisa Abrajano; Zoltan L. Hajnal
Call Number: e-book
Publication Date: 2015
White Backlash provides an authoritative assessment of how immigration is reshaping the politics of the nation. Using an array of data and analysis, Marisa Abrajano and Zoltan Hajnal show that fears about immigration fundamentally influence white Americans' core political identities, policy preferences, and electoral choices, and that these concerns are at the heart of a large-scale defection of whites from the Democratic to the Republican Party.
Undocumented Latino Youth by Marisol Clark-Ibáñez
Call Number: MCK STKS E184.S75 C53 2015
Publication Date: 2015
"Though often overlooked in heated debates, nearly 1.8 million undocumented immigrants are under the age of 18. How do immigration policies shape the lives of these young people? How do local and state laws that are seemingly unrelated to undocumented communities negatively affect them? Marisol Clark-Ibáñez delivers an intimate look at growing up as an undocumented Latino immigrant, analyzing the social and legal dynamics that shape everyday life in and out of school."
Taking Local Control: immigration policy activism in U.S. cities and states by Monica W. Varsanyi (General Editor)
Call Number: MCK STKS JV6483 .T33 2010
Publication Date: 2010
With the number of undocumented immigrants in the United States at an all-time high and Congressional immigration reform seemingly at a standstill, cities and states across the nation have leapt into the fray, creating a wide range of policies--some more controversial than others--to address illegal immigration within their jurisdictions.
Measuring Change in Immigration Policy by Suzanna Challen
Call Number: e-book
Publication Date: 2013
Challen demonstrates with new data that U.S. policy makers have not increased skill bias in migrant admissions policy, despite a turbulent economy and public concern regarding the fiscal cost of immigration. She presents a new theory of the determinants of change in U.S. migrant admissions policy that highlights the importance of supermajoritarian decision making procedures and special interest groups in influencing policy making in the U.S. Senate.
Controlling Immigration: a global perspective by Wayne A. Cornelius; Philip L. Martin; James F. Hollifield
Call Number: e-book
Publication Date: 2014
The third edition of this major work provides a systematic, comparative assessment of the efforts of a selection of major countries, including the U.S., to deal with immigration and immigrant issues- paying particular attention to the ever-widening gap between their migration policy goals and outcomes. Retaining its comprehensive coverage of nations built by immigrants and those with a more recent history of immigration, the new edition pays particular attention to the tensions created by post-colonial immigration, and explores how countries have attempted to control the entry and employment of.