Third, this study makes important contributions
to research on legal noncompliance.
Although scholarship on legal noncompliance
has become increasingly interdisciplinary and
diverse in its focus, it has yet to systematically
consider how individuals respond to the
laws of foreign governments. Because immigration
law occupies a unique position in our
legal system as the only domestic law that is
largely directed toward regulating the behavior
of noncitizens, a focus on noncompliance
opens up important new inquiries about the
dynamics of law-abiding behavior among
nonmembers. For example, consider the findings
relating to effects of perceptions of procedural
justice on legitimating beliefs.
According to the group-value model (also
known as the relational model) of procedural
justice, legal authorities’ adherence to procedural
justice is important because fair treatment
signals to people that they are full and
valued members of the group (Paternoster
et al. 1997; Tyler [1990] 2006). Thus, people
are more likely to care about procedural justice
when the authority is part of a group to
which people feel identified or emotionally
connected (Tyler and Smith 1999). Although
Mexicans are not formal members of the U.S.
polity, there is a long-standing history of deep
cultural, social, and economic interdependence
between the two countries that might
make issues of procedural justice more salient
for Mexicans than for other groups. Continuing
efforts by the U.S. government to selectively
target and marginalize unauthorized
Mexican migrants might thus have the unintended
consequence of producing lesser,
rather than greater, voluntary deference to
U.S. immigration law, as increasing numbers
of Mexicans come to question the legitimacy
of U.S. legal authority.