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Syrian float in the Chicago Liberty Day parade, 1918.

What We Can Learn from America’s Other Muslim Ban (Back in 1918)

Stacy Fahrenthold compares Donald Trump's Muslim ban to that of Woodrow Wilson back in 1918.

200 Years of Immigration Data Put Trump's Ban into Context

In light of President Trump's temporary ban on immigration from seven Muslim-majority nations, we take a look at larger immigration trends.

What the Mass Deportation of Immigrants Might Look Like

Operation Wetback didn't merely enforce immigration law-it enforced the idea that American citizens are white.

Fifty Years On, the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act Continues to Reshape the United States

An analysis of the significance, unintended consequences, and implications ofthe 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act fifty years later.
Lyndon B. Johnson signing the 1965 Immigration Act.

The Contradictory Legacy of the 1965 Immigration Act

A law designed to repair flaws in the fabric of American justice also created new ones.
Lyndon Johnson.

Special Message to the Congress on Immigration

In early 1965, President Johnson made the case to Congress for comprehensive immigration reform.
A drawing of John Adams.

John Adams Is Bald and Toothless

A brief history of the Alien and Sedition Acts.
Mexican men in line for work in the Bracero program.
partner

What the World War II-Era Bracero Program Reveals About U.S. Immigration Debates

Efforts to restrict immigration have long coexisted with — and even reinforced — the nation's economic reliance on Mexican laborers.
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.
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.
Frances Perkins and Border Patrol officers.
partner

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.
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.
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.
Frances Perkins

How the First ‘Madam Secretary’ Fought to Save Jewish Refugees Fleeing From Nazi Germany

Frances Perkins’ challenged the United States’ restrictive immigration policies as FDR’s Secretary of Labor.
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.
A drawing of two parents and a child running at a border, their silhouettes being sliced by a chainlink fence.

The Crime of Human Movement

Two recent books about our immigration system reveal its long history of exploiting vulnerable individuals for financial gain.
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.
Letter from Wong Gin Fu to Wong Kim

Sadness of the Paper Son: The Travails of Asian Immigration to the U.S.

Despite the Chinese Exclusion Act, about 300,000 Chinese gained admission to the U.S. between 1882 and 1943. How did they do it?
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.
Aerial view of suburbs.
partner

To Understand What Could Happen on Election Day, Understand the Suburbs

Even as they've diversified, suburban politics have remained protectionist — often defying ideological categorization.
An aerial view of the International Bridge over the in Rio Grande, Laredo, Texas.
partner

The Image of Control

Following the careers of a family of especially corrupt border control officials.
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.
1882 newspaper headline following the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

The 100-Year-Old Racist Law that Broke America’s Immigration System

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.
Wong Gin Foo to Wong Kim (in Chinese), March 31, 1930.

Paper Sons in the Era of Immigration Restriction

Chinese immigration and the Immigration Act of 1924.
graph of historic immigration data

How America Tried and Failed to Stay White

100 years ago the U.S. tried to limit immigration to White Europeans. Instead, diversity triumphed.
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.
Texas governor Greg Abbott at press conference
partner

Texas Is Trying to Upend Who Controls Immigration Policy

The federal government has long controlled immigration law—and for very good reason.
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.
Woman holding belongings and a teddy bear.
partner

As Red States Send Migrants to Blue States, Sanctuary Cities are Crucial

A very old concept remains a key part of navigating the United States' broken immigration system.

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