U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) — Bunk History

Students demonstrating against the Shah of Iran, Washington, DC, 1979.

Indifferent to the Fate of Freedom Elsewhere

Jimmy Carter is known for his defense of human rights worldwide. But in 1979, he threatened to deport thousands of Iranian student protesters.

by Will Teague via HNN on March 11, 2025

Frances Perkins and Border Patrol officers.

The 1930s Case That Sparked a Debate About Deportation

The story Frances Perkins, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Labor Secretary, highlights the importance of protecting due process.

by Rebecca Brenner Graham via Made By History on March 4, 2025

A National Guard stands near a burning building during the Los Angeles uprising of 1992.

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

A U.S. Border Patrol officer shows how he found an undocumented Mexican immigrant under the hood of a car along the U.S.-Mexican border in March 1954.

Trump Promises to Deport All Undocumented Immigrants, Resurrecting a 1950s Strategy

Donald Trump says he will authorize a roundup of all 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country. A 1950s program with similar goals offers lessons.

by Katrina Burgess via The Conversation on May 6, 2024

Haitian refugees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, carrying trash bags on their heads as they walk beside barbed wire fences.

Guantánamo’s Other History

The Haitian migrant crisis is the latest stage in a decades-long legacy of mistreatment by the U.S. government, much of which unfolded at Cuban detention facilities.

by Jeffrey Kahn via Boston Review on October 14, 2021

A view looking up at the Statue of Liberty

Immigration: What We’ve Done, What We Must Do

Once, abolitionists had to imagine a world without slavery. Can we similarly envision a world where migrants are offered justice?

by Allison Brownell Tirres via Public Books on March 2, 2021

Alejandro Mayorkas testifies during confirmation hearing

The DHS Secretary Could Chart a New Path on Immigration. Will He?

Alejandro Mayorkas and the limits of liberal law-and-order immigration politics.

by Adam Goodman via Made By History on February 2, 2021

Migrant Detention Centers Have a Long History of Medical Neglect and Abuse

The link between medical abuse, racism and immigration runs deep.

by Jessica Ordaz via Made By History on September 18, 2020

For 25 Years, Operation Gatekeeper Has Made Life Worse for Border Communities

The policy of "prevention through deterrence" has been deadly.

by Pedro Rios via Made By History on October 1, 2019

Ken Cuccinelli

How President Trump’s New Immigration Rule Could Erode the Social Safety Net

The new rule dramatically expands the meaning of public charge.

by Salonee Bhaman via Made By History on August 14, 2019

How Migrant Detention Became American Policy

And why comparisons to concentration camps failed to shut them down.

by Smita Ghosh via Made By History on July 19, 2019

How Advocates can Defeat Trump’s Latest Assault on Asylum Seekers

Immigration activists helped give power to asylum protections once before. They can do it again.

by Carly Goodman, S. Deborah Kang, Yael Schacher via Made By History on July 18, 2019

Migrant Children in Custody: The Long Battle for Protection

The number of detained migrant youth has reached record highs and led to lawsuits over the Trump government’s treatment of minors.

by Sarah Weiser, Noah Madoff via Retro Report on February 20, 2019

How the U.S. Weaponized the Border Wall

The borderlands have “been transformed into a vast graveyard of the missing.”

by Greg Grandin via The Intercept on February 10, 2019

The Border Patrol has Been a Cult of Brutality Since 1924

The U.S. needs a historical reckoning with the true cause of the border crisis: the long, brutal history of border enforcement itself.

by Greg Grandin via The Intercept on January 12, 2019

Apple Macintosh computers sit on double decked manufacturing lines, 1984

The Undocumented Workers who Built Silicon Valley

Undocumented workers have been foundational to the rise of our most vaunted hub of innovative capitalism.

by Louis Hyman via Made By History on August 30, 2018

"Judge in chambers swearing in a new citizen" (1910).

Second-Class Citizens?

A history of denaturalization in the US.

by Kritika Agarwal via Perspectives on History on July 23, 2018

Trump looks at border wall construction prototypes.

The Militarization of Immigration Enforcement is Not Unique to Trump

Angry that ICE is ripping families apart? Don’t just blame Trump. Blame Clinton, Bush and Obama, too.

by Carly Goodman via Made By History on June 11, 2018

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

Mexican immigrants huddled in a cage during Operation Wetback.

Trump's Deportation Model

A 1950s mass deportation campaign shows that abuse and dehumanization are intrinsic to immigrant detention.

by Ana Raquel Minian via Dissent on October 31, 2024

Paso del Norte International Bridge.

On the Edges of Fascism and Other Unsettling Possibilities

The legacy of the Immigration Act of 1924 and the launching of the Border Patrol, which inaugurated the most restrictive era of US immigration until our own.

by Gilberto Rosas via Public Books on June 3, 2024

Street sign for Emancipation Ave.

The Border Patrol and Asylum Exclusion

Border Patrol has abused its authority and mistreated migrants in countless ways. Yet its role as the frontline force in asylum exclusion has only grown.

by S. Deborah Kang via Public Books on May 30, 2024

Illustrated person in prison garb running away from a burning prison.

Cold War Flames on US Soil: The Oakdale Prison Riot

In the 1980s, Cold War tensions led to thousands of Cubans languishing in American prisons, unable to be released or repatriated. Uprisings followed.

by Mark Atwood Lawrence, Antonio Matheus, Michael Welch, Ethan A. Klingsberg via JSTOR Daily on November 17, 2022

Drawing of aerial view of vast room of cubicles.

The 20-Year Boondoggle

The Department of Homeland Security was supposed to rally nearly two dozen agencies together in a streamlined approach to protecting the country. So what the hell happened?

by Amanda Chicago Lewis via The Verge on April 21, 2022

Anita Villarreal with a campaigning Richard J. Daley

The US Arrested Her—Then She Changed Chicago

In the 1960s, Chicago’s white neighborhoods didn’t want Mexican Americans moving in. But one determined real estate broker changed everything.

by Mike Amezcua via Public Books on February 28, 2022

Still life painting, “Early American, Apples in a Porcelain Basket” (2007), by Sharon Core.

After Apple Picking

The decline of South Carolina's apple industry, interwoven with personal memories of family orchards.

by Mark Powell via Oxford American on March 23, 2021

The entrance at Camp Livingston.

Forgotten Camps, Living History

Reckoning with the legacy of Japanese internment in the South.

by Jason Christian via The Bitter Southerner on February 18, 2021

Two men stand in a church doorway.

The Revival of Church Sanctuary

How a long-abandoned practice became a way for undocumented immigrants to seek protection.

by Rafil Kroll-Zaidi via New York Review of Books on November 10, 2020

The Deportation Machine

A new book documents the history of three specific mechanisms of expulsion: formal deportation, voluntary departure, and "self-deportation."

by Hilary Goodfriend via NACLA on September 25, 2020

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