Immigration, the hallmark issue of the Trump presidency, was front page news all year. Assaults on birthright citizenship, Trump’s family separation policy, a new proposed public charge rule, the asylum ban, the lowest refugee cap ever, fearmongering the migrant caravan,…
Gerson Rosales, “Salvadoreños in Michigan: Deliverance activism in the Midwest during the 1980s”
In my research, I discovered the stories of two teenagers who arrived at First Presbyterian Church in Ann Arbor, MI in late fall 1984. The chilly Michigan autumn must have been the coldest weather they had ever felt. Their arrival…
Ashley Johnson Bavery, “Borderlands in North America: A Selective Bibliography”
This bibliography supplements a historiographical essay published in the summer 2018 issue of the Immigration and Ethnic History Newsletter (available now to IEHS members and freely available online after a one-year delay). Conceptual Works Anzaldua, Gloria. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New…
In 2017 IEHS scholars made history
In 2017, historians entered the fray. Immigration and ethnic history society scholars, especially, have been called to bring historical thinking and analysis to policy issues and public debates about immigration, citizenship, borders, white supremacy, and vulnerable and marginalized communities. Not…
Gamze Katı Gümüş, “Disposable and Un/mournable: Immigrant Bodies in Contemporary Political Discourse”
I want to picture two scenes. The first is a beach of the Aegean Sea where the lifeless bodies of Aylan and Galip Kurdi were found ashore. The second one is a scene of the political rally in Phoenix in…
Torrie Hester, “Repatriation Agreements of the United States, Mexico, and Canada”
In today’s world where the Trump administration is stepping up deportations, understanding the process of immigration enforcement actions is more important than ever. One of the least understood components in recent history, including by many historians, is called the repatriation…
Alberto Wilson III, “Border Walls in a Globalized Age”
In November 2016, Tom Vanderbilt published an opinion piece in the New York Times titled, “The Walls in Our Heads.” Walls, he argued, rarely engender the expected outcomes of control but rather signal the erosion of state power. Vanderbilt suggested that if people…
S. Deborah Kang, “The INS on the Line: Making Immigration Law on the US-Mexico Border, 1917-1954”
In December 2014, I visited Friendship Park/El Parque de la Amistad, San Diego-Tijuana, to take photos for my book, The INS on the Line: Making Immigration Law on the US-Mexico Border, 1917-1954 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017). As I walked along…
