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A group of indigenous Pacific Islanders forced to work on a sugar plantation, with a white overseer in the background.

How ‘Blackbirders’ Forced Tens of Thousands of Pacific Islanders Into Slavery After the Civil War

The decline of Southern industries paved the way for plantations in Fiji and Australia, where victims of “blackbirding” endured horrific working conditions.
Protesters in the middle of a road holding a sign that displays the three downward arrows symbol and reads "destroy fascism."

Is Trump Hitler, or just… Woodrow Wilson?

Comparing Trump to Hitler and Mussolini obscures the basis of his mass appeal.
Young people running through the streets of Taipei; a middle aged businessman in Houston.

Texas’ Hotbed of Taiwanese Nationalism

For decades, Houston families like mine have helped keep the flame of independence burning.
Donald Trump at a podium

The New Trumpian Bargain

Trump's second term echoes 19th-century policies: tariffs and immigration limits protect workers, while deregulation risks widening inequality.

The Echoes of 1800 in the 2024 Election

This year’s momentous vote strangely resembles one of the most consequential elections in American history.
People holding signs for Trump and for deportation, in front of an American Flag.

How Immigration Became a Lightning Rod in American Politics

Anti-immigrant think tanks and advocacy groups operated on the margins until Trump became president. Now they have molded not only the GOP but also Democrats.
Donald Trump

Racism Against Haitians Didn’t Begin in Springfield, Ohio

In the early 19th century, US elites demonized the self-liberated slaves of the Haitian Revolution as dangerous practitioners of barbaric rituals.
Donald Trump stands in front of a microphone, holding a graph titled "Illegal Immigration into the US."

Trump’s Anti-Haitian Hate Has Deep American Roots

The former president’s grotesque demagoguery is just the latest in a long line of vicious attacks on residents and immigrants from the island nation.
President Calvin Coolidge raising his hand behind a podium to be sworn into office.
partner

Behind America’s First Comprehensive Federal Immigration Law

Even as the primary targets of immigration restrictionism have shifted, the consequences for immigrants remain profoundly shaped by the system created in 1924.
Saint Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington D.C.

Immigration and Mental Health Collide, Again

Trump's seeming mixup of asylum-seeking refugees with patients in psychiatric institutions stems from a long rhetorical and political tradition.
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.
Migrants being processed by the U.S. Border Patrol at a new makeshift camp after crossing the US-Mexico border.

America Turned Against Migrant Detention Before

Detaining migrants is pointless. American history proves it.
Collage of photographs of U.S. Border Patrol.

The Racist Origins of America’s Broken Immigration System

How a little-known, century-old law perpetuated the odious notion that certain types of immigrants degrade our nation’s character.
A U.S. Border Patrol vehicle in front of a section of the U.S.-Mexico border fence near Ocotillo, Calif., on Sept. 13.
partner

The Myth of ‘Open Borders’

Even before the United States regulated migration, states did. Here’s why.
Lincoln being sworn in by Chief Justice Taney.

We Are Already Defying the Supreme Court

The risks of calling on politicians to push back against the court must be weighed against the present reality of a malign judicial dictatorship.
A migrant child is lowered from a trailer in Jesus Carranza, in the Mexican state of Veracruz, in November 2021.

What Does the United States Owe Central America?

A new work of nonfiction revives a history that some would sooner see forgotten.
An electrified barbed-wire fence around Fort Bliss in El Paso, Tex., near the Mexican border, in 1915 or 1916.

The Long, Ugly History of Barbed Wire at the U.S.-Mexico Border

The first barbed wire border fences were proposed to keep out Chinese migrants. They’ve been debated for over a century.
Italian Americans watch a policeman arrest a man
partner

The Surveillance of Immigrants Remade American Policing

Modern surveillance policing is rooted in approaches adopted a century ago.
A researcher holds a magnifying glass to an archival photograph.

Looking for a Lineage in the Lusk Archive

The records of a New York surveillance committee from the time of the First Red Scare document a radical world—and its demise.
Migrants in line for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, barbed wire in the foreground.
partner

Biden’s Border Policies Target Haitians. That’s No Accident.

The long history undergirding our harsh bipartisan migration policies.
Ngango of Cameroon speaks to a crowd gathered at D.C.'s MLK Memorial.
partner

We’ve Erased Black Immigrants From Our Story, Obscuring a Racist System

We see our history of racism against Black Americans as distinct from our immigration policy, but the two are actually deeply intertwined.
Eugene Debs mug shots at the US Penitentiary in Atlanta.

War Fever

The crusade against civil liberties during World War I.
Oscar Andrade prays at the Ironwood Forest National Monument near Marana, Ariz., before searching for a missing Honduran migrant, in September.
partner

Border Enforcement Has Been Deadly By Design

The Biden administration’s expanded use of Title 42 to expel asylum seekers will take a toll.
Ken Burns speaking into a microphone.

Shaming Americans

Ken Burns’s "The U.S. and the Holocaust" distorts the historical record in service of a political message.
A migrant child plays with a Captain America action figure by the U.S. border in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
partner

U.S. Policies Like Title 42 Make Migrants More Vulnerable to Smugglers

Since the 1960s, border enforcement and deterrence policies have made migrants vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.
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.
Map of the Cherokee Country in 1900

How the Supreme Court Failed to Stop the Brutal Relocation of Indigenous American Nations

On the legal challenges to racist presidential policy that led to the Trail of Tears.
Picture of Haitian migrants crossing the Rio Grande river.
partner

Enslaved Black Americans Crossed Borders to Find Freedom. Today’s Asylum Seekers Want the Same.

Restriction and deportation exist in opposition to the political traditions of the African American freedom struggle.
Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan wave at inauguration in 1981
partner

Reagan’s War on Drugs Also Waged War on Immigrants

Lawmakers are undoing the worst parts of 1980s drug legislation, but they have forgotten its ties to immigration enforcement.
People on the street and burning car amidst debris

Los Angeles Could Have Rebuilt a Better City After the Rodney King Violence. Here's Why It Failed.

Leading gangs in Los Angeles were making peace as the city burned. How the city failed them rewrites our understanding of that moment.

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