Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7124-9812

Semester

Fall

Date of Graduation

2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Political Science

Committee Chair

Matthew Jacobsmeier

Committee Member

William Franko

Committee Member

Shaniqua Williams

Committee Member

Herschel Thomas

Abstract

Immigration remains one of the most contested public policy issues in the United States, and racial attitudes have become increasingly important in shaping public opinion and political debate. While prior research has shown a strong relationship between racial resentment and restrictive immigration attitudes, less is known about whether these attitudes extend to legislative discourse and the adoption of immigrant-inclusive state policies. This dissertation addresses that gap by examining the relationship between racial resentment and immigration politics across three levels of analysis: public opinion, legislative discourse, and state policy adoption. Using a mixed-methods research design, the study combines quantitative and qualitative approaches. First, ordinary least squares regression models using American National Election Studies data from 2004 to 2020 assess the relationship between racial resentment and immigration attitudes over time. Second, qualitative frame analysis examines legislative debates surrounding three immigrant-inclusive policy domains: in-state tuition for undocumented students, Medicaid coverage for pregnant undocumented immigrants, and sanctuary policies. Third, event history analysis using Cox proportional hazards models, with log-logistic models as robustness checks, evaluates the relationship between state-level racial resentment and the adoption of immigrant-inclusive policies between 2000 and 2020. The findings show that racial resentment is a strong predictor of restrictive immigration attitudes and remains an important feature of legislative discourse, where policymakers frequently invoke deservingness, legality, public safety, and fiscal responsibility. However, the relationship between racial resentment and immigrant-inclusive policy adoption is more limited and mixed across policy domains than originally hypothesized. The results suggest that policy adoption is also shaped by demographic, economic, political, and institutional factors that vary across states and policy contexts. Overall, the dissertation demonstrates that racial resentment is most consistently associated with individual immigration attitudes and legislative discourse, whereas its relationship to immigrant-inclusive policy adoption is more nuanced and context dependent. By integrating public opinion, legislative discourse, and state policymaking within a unified framework, this study advances understanding of how racial attitudes shape immigration politics.

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