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The employment conditions of domestic work are documented in several sociological studies. Relying primarily on interviews with employers and employees, previous studies highlight the hierarchy and tension in employee-employer relationships as well as the social isolation of domestic workers. While these studies illuminate the conditions of domestic work, they provide few details about what domestic workers do while they are "on the job." My research contributes to this field by relying primarily on ethnographic observations rather than interview data. Based on a year of ethnographic observations, this paper details the rich interactions and relationships Latina nannies form at a public park in Los Angeles. The vibrant community life at the park and the experiences women share with one another, illustrates how the park plays an important role in sustaining relationships among these Latina workers. Rather than being socially isolated, these women use their interactions at the park to create a community of social support. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1996, Congress added Section 287(g) to the Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act, authorizing local law enforcement agencies to enter into agreements with the Department of Homeland Security to enforce federal immigration laws. Since then, over 900 officers in 62 law enforcement departments have been trained and certified to enforce federal immigration laws through the 287(g) program. While most literature on immigration control focuses on policy creation at the national level, much less attention has been paid to the growing trend of subnational immigration legislation. In addition, relatively little attention has been given to what takes place between policy adoption and outcomes: the process of immigration policy implementation. This paper addresses 287(g) implementation in Nashville, Tennessee. Since its inception, 287(g) has been controversial. Numerous policy reports suggest that granting immigration enforcement authority to local officers encourages these officers to engage in racial profiling and harms public safety by making immigrants afraid to report crimes. The problem with these characterizations, however, is that they fail to acknowledge the variation in the types of agencies with 287(g) programs (police departments, sheriff's department, state troopers), and the types of 287(g) agreements in which agencies can enter (the task force model or jail model). For example, police officials most frequently criticize the 287(g) task force model, which trains field officers in immigration enforcement, but remain silent on the more commonly implemented jail model, where individuals are screened for immigration violations after they are arrested. This distinction is important because in some cases, the agency that screens individuals for immigration violations is not the agency that arrests them. In Nashville, for example, while the police department is the only agency that can arrest people in Davidson County, it is the Sheriff's Office that screens individuals for immigration violations. Drawing on interviews with employees in the Davidson County Sheriff's Office this paper seeks to address how local employees implement the 287(g) program. Theoretically, I draw from literature on bureaucracy that suggests that people on the front lines of policy implementation essentially make policy through their practices. How individuals implement policy depends on the preferences of actors in the policy arena, and the institutional characteristics of the bureaucracies charged with implementing the policy. I show that while local police have the discretion to avoid arresting immigrants for minor crimes, Sheriff Deputies possess no discretion in their authority to screen individuals for immigration violations, regardless of the severity of their alleged crime. In contrast to police officers, who encounter immigrants while they are in the community, once individuals are arrested, Sheriff Deputies see immigrants as "criminals" ready for processing. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conspicuous arrival of immigrant populations to new towns and cities across the country poses challenges for communities, as immigrants' presence is felt in schools, hospitals, and employment sectors. In the absence of federal immigration reform, local governments have entered the vacuum by adopting their own enforcement measures.This paper examines one kind of "local" immigration policyâ?? the cross-deputization of local law enforcement officers as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents through the 287(g) programâ?? in Nashville, Tennessee. While enabling local law enforcement agencies to enforce federal immigration policies is politically popular, it has also thrust local law enforcement agencies into the national spotlight with accusations of racial profiling and improper treatment of immigrant detainees. Relying on interviews with law enforcement and government officials in Nashville, this paper describes what happens when the police become "la migra," by focusing on 287(g)'s unanticipated consequences and subsequent policy responses. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]