History of Immigration

Although the federal government has made significant progress over the past three years in fighting human trafficking, more is needed to end this 21st century slave trade.

Published On: Tue, Jun 01, 2004 | Download File

The McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 ended the blanket exclusion of immigrants based on race and created the foundation for current immigration law, but imposed a racialized immigration quota system and new ideological grounds for exclusion.

Published On: Tue, Jun 01, 2004 | Download File

Immigrants and the children of immigrants are prominent among the athletes representing the United States in the 2004 Olympics. The stories of these immigrant athletes offer a vivid glimpse of the immigrant experience in the United States.

Published On: Wed, Sep 01, 2004 | Download File

The Barred Zone Act of February 4, 1917, offers a cautionary lesson against immigration policies based on the exclusion of immigrants from particular countries or regions of the world.

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Published On: Sat, Jan 01, 2005 | Download File

December 17 marks the anniversary of the 1943 repeal by Congress of the Chinese Exclusion Act of May 6, 1882. With only a few exceptions, this law barred any Chinese from immigrating to the United States, and was the first time U.S. immigration policy singled out citizens of a particular nation for wholesale discrimination.

Published On: Wed, Dec 01, 2004 | Download File

Successive generations of African immigration have continuously transformed the African American community and the sociopolitical climate of the United States.

Published On: Tue, Mar 01, 2005 | Download File

Thirty years after the fall of the Saigon government, Vietnamese Americans celebrate the fact that they have moved far beyond their refugee origins and become successful economic and political players in U.S. society.

Published On: Wed, Jun 01, 2005 | Download File

A proper understanding of the causes of international migration suggests that punitive immigration and border policies tend to backfire, and this is precisely what has happened in the case of the United States and Mexico. Rather than raising the odds that undocumented immigrants will be apprehended, U.S. border-enforcement policies have reduced the apprehension rate to historical lows and in the process helped transform Mexican immigration from a regional to a national phenomenon. Read more...

Published On: Tue, Sep 06, 2005 | Download File

If the current political stalemate over immigration reform is any indication, many U.S. policymakers have yet to heed the lessons of recent history when it comes to formulating a realistic strategy to control undocumented immigration. In 1986, lawmakers passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) in an attempt to reign in undocumented immigration through heightened worksite and border enforcement, combined with legalization of most undocumented immigrants already in the country. Read more...

Published On: Wed, May 03, 2006 | Download File

Many people assume that their family immigrated to the U.S. legally, or did it “the right way.”  In most cases, this statement does not reflect the fact that the U.S. immigration system was very different when their families arrived, and that their families might not have been allowed to enter had today’s laws been in effect.  In some cases, claiming that a family came “legally” is simply inaccurate—undocumented immigration has been a reality for generations.

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Published On: Tue, Nov 25, 2008 | Download File