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Street vendors at the border crossing in Tijuana, 2006.

Fortifying the U.S.-Mexico Boundary

The 1993 “Hold the Line” experiment.
by Justin I. Salgado via Origins on June 8, 2024
A Border Patrol agent stands by an opening in the U.S. Mexico Border wall.
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Trump’s Border Wall Belongs to Biden Now

A border policy divorced from history can’t do what policymakers want.
by Kevan Q. Malone via Made By History on April 11, 2021

The 10 Best Songs About Illegal Immigration

Over the past decade, music devoted to the cause of amnesty for undocumented immigrants has flourished across the U.S.
by Gustavo Arellano via OC Weekly on November 12, 2013
US and Mexican immigrant rights activists march through the Arizona desert to draw attention to unjust immigration policies.

What the Birth of the Sanctuary Movement Teaches Us Today

The birth of the sanctuary movement some 45 years ago can teach us a lot about how to respond to today’s attacks on immigrants.
by Kyle Paoletta via The Nation on April 10, 2025
The Inspection Room at Ellis Island in New York circa 1910.
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The History of Categorizing Immigrants as Either Good or Bad

In the 19th century, debates about contract workers sorted immigrants into "natural" and "unnatural" categories.
by Hidetaka Hirota via Made By History on March 26, 2025
Soldier at the US-Mexico border.

Trump’s Doubly Flawed "Invasion" Theory

How Trump's migration-as-invasion theory might serve as a pretext for claiming vast presidential powers and upending constitutional norms.
by Elizabeth Goitein, Katherine Yon Ebright via Just Security on February 19, 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
Chinese workers standing in the streets.

The Long Shadow of the Chinese Exclusion Act

The true cost of the immigration policy can be measured in the generations of Chinese Americans who were never born.
by Jane C. Hu via The New Yorker on January 23, 2025
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
A crowd of Chinese immigrants stands around in a train depot.
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The China Business

At the turn of the century in upstate New York, one tiny town learned there was money to make in the jailing of Chinese migrants.
by Brianna Nofil via HNN on October 22, 2024
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.
by Gaby del Valle via The Nation on September 25, 2024
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
President Bill Clinton signing NAFTA

The Long Shadow of NAFTA

Neither side of the border has seen the benefits it was promised.
by Helen Andrews via The American Conservative on February 12, 2024
Obama, Reagan, Trump, George W Bush, and Biden

Things Fall Apart: How the Middle Ground on Immigration Collapsed

Politicians from both sides used to agree on immigration policy. What happened?
by Kirk Semple, Jonah M. Kessel via New York Times Op-Docs on January 23, 2024
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
Fort Huachuca in 1894.

The American Maginot Line (Pt. 2)

Exploring the history of U.S. empire through the story of Fort Huachuca – the “Guardian of the Frontier.”
by Alex Aviña via Foreign Exchanges on September 27, 2021
Chinese miners in California

The Anti-Asian Roots of Today’s Anti-Immigrant Politics

Long before Trump, politicians on the country’s West Coast mobilized a white working-class base through violent hate of Chinese and Japanese immigrants.
by Mari Uyehara via The Nation on August 9, 2021
Alejandro Mayorkas testifies during confirmation hearing
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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

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
Men lined up on a set of stairs.

Who Is "Essential"?

On the need to rethink the U.S. immigration and refugee policy, which was shaped as part of Cold War strategy.
by Mae Ngai via Perspectives on History on August 21, 2020

How Nativism Went Mainstream

Three decades ago, California was the launchpad for a virulent strain of anti-immigrant politics that soon spread nationwide.
by Daniel Denvir via Jacobin on February 1, 2020
John Tanton
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John Tanton Has Died. He Made America Less Open to Immigrants — and More Open to Trump.

The nativist activist helped make anti-immigrant politics mainstream.
by Carly Goodman via Made By History on July 18, 2019

The Wild West Meets the Southern Border

At first glance, frontier towns near the U.S.-Mexico border seem oblivious both of history and of the current political reality.
by Valeria Luiselli via The New Yorker on June 3, 2019
A private security guard throws a soccer ball back inside the Tornillo detention camp for migrant teens in Tornillo, Texas, Dec. 13, 2018.

A Historian on How Trump’s Wall Rhetoric Changes Lives in Mexico

The U.S. did not always find it necessary to lock up people seeking asylum.
by Ana Raquel Minian, Isaac Chotiner via The New Yorker on February 15, 2019

The Migrant Caravan: Made in USA

Much of the migrant "crisis" is blowback from decades of official U.S. policy in Central America.
by Robert Saviano via New York Review of Books on February 14, 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

Manufacturing Illegality

Historian Mae Ngai reflects on how a century of immigration law created a crisis.
by Mae Ngai, Peter Costantini via Foreign Policy in Focus on January 16, 2019
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For Private Prisons, Detaining Immigrants Is Big Business

Today, despite their mixed record, private prison companies are overseeing the vast majority of undocumented migrants.
by Sarah Weiser, Noah Madoff, Anne Checler via Retro Report on October 1, 2018

Fracturing Landscapes: A History of Fences on the U.S.-Mexico Divide

History tells us that Trump's proposed wall will not work, and that it will do more damage than good.
by Mary Mendoza via OUPblog on September 4, 2018

Citizenship Shouldn't Be a Birthright

Guaranteeing citizen status simply for being born here is a deliberate misreading of the Fourteenth Amendment.
by Michael Anton via Washington Post on July 18, 2018
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