Sara Heridia

PhD Candidate, Department of Political Science, Emory University

Working Papers

  • Sara Heridia. “Finding Empathy: Judicial Behavior Among Judges with Family Immigration Histories.” (R&R at PRQ) Download paper. Download appendix.
    • Abstract: In immigration courts, judges make critical decisions on the fates of immigrants to remain in the U.S. Scholars know little about the behaviors of political actors with immigrant identities. While judicial research suggests that judges with these backgrounds will make decisions favorable to immigrants, I argue that the lack of independence in these courts undermines these claims. I collect an original dataset on judge backgrounds and analyze two consequential immigration decisions: the granting of continuances and relief decisions from deportation. I find that with discretion judges with immigrant backgrounds will be more likely to grant continuances. In contrast to previous findings in judicial politics, without discretion the connection between their identity and outcomes becomes insignificant. I provide a novel focus on how immigrant identities can affect judicial behavior and a novel institutional explanation for the relationship between judge identities and law.
  • Alexander Bolton and Sara Heridia. “How Bureaucracies Circumvent Merit Processes to Hire Ideologically Congruous Judges and Restrain Independence.” (under review) Download paper.
    • Abstract: We examine whether political factors play a role in the hiring of administrative law judges (ALJs). While agencies can select ALJs who undergo a merit-based competitive hiring process, most hire judges from the Social Security Administration (SSA). Selecting from this group of individuals may allow agencies to bypass nonpolitical selection processes and ideologically screen ALJ candidates. To assess this possibility, we create a new dataset combining ALJ disposition data and federal personnel records and compare the behavior of judges who have transferred agencies and those who have not. We find recipient agencies are more likely to hire judges with less generous disposition records, particularly during Republican administrations. This suggests, at the margins, agencies hire judges who conform to their policy objectives. These findings highlight how agencies strategically hire to advance their policy preferences and illuminate concerns about the independence of judges in bureaucratic contexts.
  • Sara Heridia. “Loyalty, Competency, and Diversity: Judicial Selection of U.S. Immigration Judges.”
    • Abstract: Abstract publicly available pending completion of interviews.
  • Sara Heridia. “Race, Immigration, and Judicial Behavior.”
    • Abstract: Immigration law and policy has historically shaped the development of racial categories. These developments led to the elevation of certain racial groups over others and formations of more restrictive immigrant attitudes, which can lead to differences in behaviors. While research in judicial politics highlights how judges who are non-white and have family immigration histories engage in different decision-making patterns, these identities are treated as separable. The intersection of these two important identities may provide an alternative approach for evaluating the effects of diversity in judicial contexts. I draw from different theoretical perspectives to posit that judges of color who have immigrants backgrounds have a greater incentive compared to white non-immigrants and immigrants to make pro-immigrant decisions. Using deportation proceedings data from immigration courts, I explore the relationship between racial diversity and immigrant diversity among judges. In contrast to my expectations, I find that immigrant backgrounds either have no influence on decision-making behaviors of judges or they lead to adverse outcomes. These findings highlight the need to continue understanding the immigrant experience in judicial politics and assessing identities not in isolation but intersectionally.

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