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Protestors use the celebrated Hamilton lyric, “Immigrants: We Get the Job Done” to protest the first inauguration of President Donald Trump.

“The Premise of Our Founding”: Immigration and Popular Mythmaking

On the tension between celebratory rhetoric and restrictive policy surrounding immigration.
by Connie Thomas via The Panorama on February 24, 2025
Book cover of "In the Shadow of Liberty," featuring city scenes and barbed wire.

Intended to Be Cruel

On Ana Raquel Minian’s “In the Shadow of Liberty.”
by Sara Campos via Los Angeles Review of Books on June 2, 2024
Alfred Stieglitz's photograph "The Steerage."

This Photo of U.S. Immigration Isn’t What You Think

There is more to Alfred Stieglitz’s iconic photograph “The Steerage” than meets the eye.
via The Bigger Picture on October 3, 2022

Evangelicals and Immigration: A Conflicted History

Before the 1990s, evangelical Christians were busier resettling newly arrived refugees than trying to keep them out.
by Ulrike Elisabeth Stockhausen via Process: A Blog for American History on March 18, 2019

A New Way of Seeing 200 Years of American Immigration

To depict how waves of immigrants shaped the United States, a team of designers looked to nature as a model.
by Tanvi Misra via CityLab on December 17, 2018

The Myth of the Criminal Immigrant

The link between immigration and crime exists in the imaginations of Americans, and nowhere else.
by Anna Flagg via The Marshall Project on March 30, 2018
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Fans of Trump’s Immigration Views Should Remember How Figures Like Him Targeted Their Ancestors

Keeping the Irish poor out of America helped shape our restrictive immigration policies.
by Hidetaka Hiroka via Made By History on January 16, 2018

Hurricanes Drive Immigration to the US

Why hurricane refugees are more likely to come from some countries than others.
by Dean Yang, Parag Mahajan via The Conversation on September 15, 2017

Trump’s Move to End DACA and Echoes of the Immigration Act of 1924

By ending DACA, President Trump seems to be trying to resurrect a national immigration policy defined by racial engineering.
by Jelani Cobb via The New Yorker on September 5, 2017

The Real History of American Immigration

Trump's break with tradition may be good or bad, but it's definitely different.
by Joshua Zeitz via Politico Magazine on August 6, 2017

“This is Not Who We Are,” Critics Say About the Refugee Ban. But What if it is?

Fighting over immigration is central to the American story.
by Nicole Hemmer via Vox on February 9, 2017

Not Who We Are

The U.S. is neither a land of nativists nor a haven for immigrants. Since the founding, the truth has lain somewhere in between.
by Paul A. Kramer via Slate on February 3, 2017

#ImmigrationSyllabus

A semester-length guide for educators and citizens seeking to understand the history and meaning of immigration in the U.S.
by Erika Lee, María Cristina García, Adam Goodman, Madeline Hsu, Julian Lim, Maddalena Marinari, Evan Taparata via University of Minnesota on January 26, 2017

Origins and Destinations of the World’s Migrants, from 1990-2015

Explore origin and destination totals of migrants from 233 countries between 1990 and 2015.
via Pew Research Center on May 17, 2016

Ellis Island's Forgotten Final Act as a Cold War Detention Center

The idealistic interpretation of Ellis Island should be revisited.
by Brianna Nofil via Atlas Obscura on February 2, 2016
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Foreign Born Population 1850-2010

An interactive map of immigrant populations in the United States.
by Ed Ayers, Robert K. Nelson, Scott Nesbit, Justin Madron, Nathaniel Ayers via American Panorama on December 1, 2015

Anne Frank and Her Family Were Also Denied Entry as Refugees to the U.S.

Historian Richard Breitman tracked the efforts of Anne Frank's family to seek refuge in the US while immigration rules and public attitudes towards immigrants were changing.
by Elahe Izadi via Washington Post on November 24, 2015

What Americans Thought of Jewish Refugees on the Eve of World War II

On the eve of World War 2, most Americans opposed granting asylum to Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler.
by Ishaan Tharoor via Washington Post on November 17, 2015

37 Maps That Explain How America Is a Nation of Immigrants

It's impossible to understand the country without knowing who's been kept out, who's been let in, and how they've been treated once they arrive.
by Dara Lind via Vox on January 12, 2015

The Hispanic Challenge

The persistent inflow of Hispanic immigrants threatens to divide the US into two peoples, two cultures, and two languages.
by Samuel P. Huntington via Foreign Policy on October 28, 2009
Young Latino children holding a small American flags.

The Diversity Bell That Trump Can’t Un-ring

The biggest problem with the history Trump wants to impose on us is that it never, in fact, existed.
by Geraldo Cadava via The New Republic on August 7, 2025
Painting by Hiroki Kawanabe titled Wide Street.

Legacies of Japanese American Incarceration

Brandon Shimoda’s book about the memorialization of Japanese internment camps also speaks to the brutal system of migrant detention that continues to this day.
by Francisco Cantú via New York Review of Books on April 3, 2025
Drawing of the fight between two congressional representatives titled "Congressional pugilists," 1798.

Alien Enemies, Alien Friends, and the Concept of “Allegiance”

With controversy raging over the Alien Enemies Act, how should we understand the concept it invoked?
by Robert Natelson via Law & Liberty on March 24, 2025
President Eisenhower; The silhouette of a hand pressing into a fence that is blocking the American flag.

The Shaky History of Mass Deportations

‘Operation Wetback’ and ‘Mexican Repatriation’ worked—until they didn’t.
by Benjamin Montoya via The Dispatch on March 5, 2025
Border Patrol agents stand watch along a barrier.

Mass Deportations Are an American Tradition

Past presidents showed that removing millions of illegal aliens is achievable.
by Jacob Grandstaff via The American Conservative on February 17, 2025
A National Guard stands near a burning building during the Los Angeles uprising of 1992.
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How Disaster Provides Cover for Targeting Immigrants

Efforts to target immigrants amid the 1992 L.A. Uprising point to what deportations might look like under Trump 2.0.
by V. N. Trinh via Made By History on January 27, 2025
Von Trapp family from "The Sound of Music," (1965).

How the Family From Everyone’s Favorite Musical Actually Came to America

And why so many people remember the tale so differently.
by Rebecca Brenner Graham via Slate on January 26, 2025
Photo of Wong Kim Ark and document about Chinese Exclusion.

History’s Lessons on Anti-Immigrant Extremism

Even Trump’s recent assertion that he would use executive action to abolish birthright citizenship has a historical link to the Chinese American experience.
by Michael Luo via The New Yorker on January 5, 2025
Three Border Patrol agents detaining migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump Wants to Use the Alien Enemies Act to Deport Immigrants – but the Law is Meant for War Time

The Alien Enemies Act, first approved in the late 1700s, was last used during World War II to identify particular foreign nationals living in the US.
by Daniel Tichenor via The Conversation on December 11, 2024
Bracero workers in line getting paperwork filled out.

A New Bracero Program Is Not the Solution

An Eisenhower-era initiative holds key lessons for Trump’s immigration policy.
by Mae Ngai via The Atlantic on December 9, 2024
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