Central American Refugee Issue in Brownsville, Texas. Seeking Understanding of Public Policy Formulation From Within a Community Setting

This community-based inquiry sought to gain an enriched understanding of the process by which elements of a local context attempted to influence, via agenda setting, the formulation of public policy at the federal level. Data were gathered via the qualitative methods of document review, participant observation, and interviews. Local government officials, leaders of religious and refugee advocacy groups, Immigration and Naturalization personnel, and Central Americans were key data sources. To seek meaning in two complex conceptual domains (public policy formulation and refugee policy) the inquiry process and findings are reported in the "thick description" format of a linear-analytic case study.