This book traces the origins of the "illegal alien" in American law and society, explaining why and how illegal migration became the central problem in U.S. immigration policy -- a process that profoundly shaped ideas and practices about citizenship, race, and state authority in the twentieth century. Mae Ngai offers a close reading of the legal regime of restriction that commenced in the 1920s -- its statutory architecture, judicial genealogies, administrative enforcement, differential treatment of European and non-European migrants, and long-term effects. She shows that immigration restriction, particularly national-origin and numerical quotas, remapped America both by creating new categories of racial difference and by emphasizing as never before the nation's contiguous land borders and their patrol.

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• HistoryAmericasUnited States20th Century
• Politics & Social SciencesSocial SciencesSpecial GroupsEthnic Studies
• HistoryAmericas
• HistoryUnited States20th Century
• HistoryUnited StatesImmigration

• Publication Date: April 27, 2014
• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 400 Pages
• File Size: 86 KB