All-American Nativism

by Daniel Denvir

  119“Remarks by Barbara Jordan, Chair, U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, to the Immigration and Naturalization Service,” Barbara C. Jordan Archives, November 21, 1995, 11.

  120Robert Pear, “Clinton Embraces a Proposal to Cut Immigration by a Third,” New York Times, June 8, 1995.

  121Dara Lind, “The Disastrous, Forgotten 1996 Law That Created Today’s Immigration Problem,” Vox, April 28, 2016.

  122Charles Kamasaki, Immigration Reform: The Corpse That Will Not Die, Simsbury, CT: Mandel Vilar Press, 2019, 364–5; Tichenor, Dividing Lines, 365.

  123Office of the Press Secretary, “Remarks by the President, the Vice-President and the Attorney General during Immigration Policy Announcement,” clintonwhitehouse6.archives.gov, July 27, 1993.

  124Steven A. Holmes, “The Strange Politics of Immigration,” New York Times, December 31, 1995; Associated Press, “A Retreat on Denying Welfare to Immigrants,” New York Times, January 10, 1995.

  125Alison Mitchell, “Clinton Signs Measure on Terrorism and Death Penalty Appeals,” New York Times, April 26, 1996; Dawn Marie Johnson, “AEDPA and the IIRIRA: Treating Misdemeanors as Felonies for Immigration Purposes,” Journal of Legislation 27(2), 2001, 481–3; “Analysis of Immigration Detention Policies: Support Fair Detention Policies,” aclu.org.

  126Lena Williams, “A Law Aimed at Terrorists Hits Legal Immigrants,” New York Times, July 17, 1996.

  127Kathleen Belew, Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2018, 7, 236.

  128Douglas S. Massey and Karen A. Pren, “Unintended Consequences of US Immigration Policy: Explaining the Post-1965 Surge from Latin America,” Population and Development Review 38(1), 2012, 1–29.

  129Robert Pear, “U.S. Strengthening Patrols along the Mexican Border,” New York Times, January 13, 1996.

  130Andreas, Border Games, 89.

  131Dora Schriro, “Immigration Detention Overview and Recommendations,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement, October 6, 2009, 2.

  132Sharita Gruberg, “How For-Profit Companies Are Driving Immigration Detention Policies,” americanprogress.org, December 18, 2015.

  133Keller, “Re-thinking Illegal Entry and Re-entry,” 4, 15, 17.

  134Tracy Wilkinson, “Gangs Find Fresh Turf in Salvador,” Los Angeles Times, June 16, 1994.

  135Pear, “U.S. Strengthening Patrols along the Mexican Border.”

  136Peter Beinart, “The Republican Party’s White Strategy,” Atlantic, July/August, 2016.

  137Cathleen Decker, “Wilson Drops Out of White House Race, Blames Cash Woes,” Los Angeles Times, September 30, 1995.

  138B. Drummond Ayres Jr., “Wilson, Trailing in Voters’ Polls, Drops 1996 Quest,” New York Times, September 30, 1995.

  139James Bennet, “Candidate’s Speech Is Called Code for Controversy,” New York Times, February 25, 1996.

  140Eric Schmitt, “Milestones and Missteps on Immigration,” New York Times, October 26, 1996.

  141Adam Nagourney, “Dole Unleashes His Tough Talk on Immigration,” New York Times, October 18, 1996.

  142The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952–2016, Museum of the Moving Image, livingroomcandidate.org.

  143Ibid.

  144James Bennet, “Democrats Defend Clinton on Immigration in Striking Manner,” New York Times, June 27, 1996.

  145Louis Freedberg, “Clinton and Dole’s Dueling Immigration Ads,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 7, 1996.

  146Andreas, Border Games, 110.

  147“1996 Democratic Party Platform,” August 26, 1996, presidency.ucsb.edu.

  148Robert B. Reich, Locked in the Cabinet, New York: Vintage Books, 1998, 339.

  149Pear, “U.S. Strengthening Patrols along the Mexican Border.”

  150Denvir, “How Centrists Failed Immigrants.”

  151“President Bill Clinton’s State Of The Union Address, Part 2,” cnn. com, January 27, 1998.

  152Daniel B. Wood, “Controlling Illegal Immigration—but at a Price,” Christian Science Monitor, October 4, 1999.

  153Andreas, Border Games, 85.

  154Mirta Ojito, “Immigrants; Once Divisive, Immigration Now a Muted Issue,” New York Times, November 1, 1998.

  155Jens Manuel Krogstad et al., “5 Facts about Illegal Immigration in the U.S.,” pewresearch.org, June 12, 2019.

  156Steven Greenhouse, “Labor Urges Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants,” New York Times, February 17, 2000.

  157Don Gonyea, “How the Labor Movement Did a 180 on Immigration,” npr.org, February 5, 2013; Ruth Milkman, “Labor and the New Immigrant Rights Movement: Lessons from California,” Items, items. ssrc.org, July 28, 2006.

  158Nurith C. Aizenman, “INS Raids Follow Union Organizing,” Washington Post, December 6, 1999.

  159Michael Janofsky, “Candidates Courting Hispanic Vote,” New York Times, June 25, 2000.

  160Steve Kornacki, “When Trump Ran against Trump-ism: The 1990s and the Birth of Political Tribalism in America,” nbcnews.com, October 2, 2018.

  161Haddal et al., “Border Security: Barriers along the U.S. International Border,” Summary.

  162Haddal et al., “Border Security: Barriers along the U.S. International Border,” 2.

  163“Illegal Immigration: Border-Crossing Deaths Have Doubled since 1995,” United States Government Accountability Office, August 2006, 14, 29.

  164“‘You Have to Pay with Your Body’: The Hidden Nightmare of Sexual Violence on the Border,” New York Times, March 3, 2019; William Paul Simmons, Cecilia Menjívar, and Michelle Téllez, “Violence and Vulnerability of Female Migrants in Drop Houses in Arizona: The Predictable Outcome of a Chain Reaction of Violence,” Violence against Women 21(5), 2015.

  165Andreas, Border Games, 100–1.

  166Peter Brownell, “The Declining Enforcement of Employer Sanctions,” Migration Policy Institute, September 1, 2005.

  167Jeff Greenfield, “Trump Is Pat Buchanan with Better Timing,” Politico, September, 2016.

  168Eric Schmitt, “Bush Aides Weigh Legalizing Status of Mexicans in U.S.,” New York Times, July 15, 2001; Kelly Wallace, “Bush in a Tough Place on Immigration Reform,” cnn.com, July 27, 2001.

  169Associated Press, “‘Guru’ Serves as Bush’s Lightning Rod,” Billings Gazette, August 11, 2001.

  170Schmitt, “Bush Aides Weigh Legalizing Status of Mexicans in U.S.”

  171Eric Schmitt, “Ambivalence Prevails in Immigration Policy,” New York Times, May 27, 2001.

  172Terry M. Neal, “Bush’s Message Reflects Hispanic Demographics,” Washington Post, September 15, 1999.

  173Patrick J. McDonnell, “Brash Evangelist,” Los Angeles Times, July 15, 2001.

  174Patrick J. McDonnell, “Amnesty by Any Name Is Hot Topic,” Los Angeles Times, July 22, 2001.

  175How Democracy Works, episode 2, directed by Catherine Gund (New York: Aubin Pictures, 1997).

  176Peter Andreas, “A Tale of Two Borders: The U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada Lines after 9-11,” Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, May 2003, 7.

  177Philip Bump, “How ‘Homeland’ Became Part of Our American Lexicon,” Washington Post, September 11, 2014.

  178Argueta, “Border Security: Immigration Enforcement between Ports of Entry,” 10.

  179Andreas, Border Games, 167–8.

  1809/11 Commission, “The 9/11 Commission Report,” 9-11commission. gov, July 22, 2004, 362.

  181Kandel, “Interior Immigration Enforcement,” 10.

  182Argueta, “Border Security: Immigration Enforcement between Ports of Entry,” 4.

  183Office of Border Patrol, “National Border Patrol Strategy,” hsdl.org, 2004.

  184Somini Sengupta and Christopher Drew, “Effort to Discover Terrorists among Illegal Aliens Makes Glacial Progress, Critics Say,” New York Times, November 12, 2001; “Ashcroft Announces Immigration Crackdown,” pbs.org, October 31, 2001.

  185Eric Schmitt, “I.N.S. Chief Stepping Down, Latest to Do So
at Justice Dept.,” New York Times, August 17, 2002.

  186Sengupta and Drew, “Effort to Discover Terrorists among Illegal Aliens Makes Glacial Progress, Critics Say.”

  187Eric Lichtblau, “U.S. Report Faults the Roundup of Illegal Immigrants after 9/11,” New York Times, June 2, 2003; “Department of Justice Inspector General Issues Report on Treatment of Aliens Held on Immigration Charges in Connection with the Investigation of the September 11 Terrorist Attacks,” Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Justice, June 2, 2003; “Supplemental Report on September 11 Detainees’ Allegations of Abuse at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York,” Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Justice, December 2003.

  188Maia Jachimowicz and Ramah McKay, “‘Special Registration’ Program,” migrationpolicy.org, April 1, 2003; Rachel L. Swarns, “Special Registration for Arab Immigrants Will Reportedly Stop,” New York Times, November 22, 2003.

  189Goldstein, “Clinton’s Guantanamo”; A. Naomi Paik, “US Turned Away Thousands of Haitian Asylum-Seekers and Detained Hundreds More in the 90s,” theconversation.com, June 28, 2018; A. Naomi Paik, “Carceral Quarantine at Guantánamo,” Radical History Review 115, 2013, 160.

  190Cristina Rodríguez et al., “A Program in Flux: New Priorities and Implementation Challenges for 287(g),” migrationpolicy.org, March 2010, 3.

  191Mike Branom, “35 State Officers to Uphold Federal Immigration,” Miami Herald, August 16, 2002.

  192Argueta, “Border Security: Immigration Enforcement between Ports of Entry,” Summary.

  193How Democracy Works, episode 2.

  194Jason DeParle, “The Anti-Immigration Crusader,” New York Times, April 17, 2011.

  195Rachel L. Swarns, “Senate, in Bipartisan Act, Passes Immigration Bill,” New York Times, May 26, 2006; “Side-by-Side Comparison of 2013 Senate Immigration Bill with 2006 and 2007 Senate Legislation,” migrationpolicy.org, April 2013; Carl Hulse and Jim Rutenberg, “Senate Votes to Extend Fence along Border,” New York Times, May 17, 2006.

  196Michael A. Fletcher and Jonathan Weisman, “Bush Signs Bill Authorizing 700-Mile Fence for Border,” Washington Post, October 27, 2006.

  197Haddal et al., “Border Security: Barriers along the U.S. International Border,” Summary.

  198Carle Hulse and Rachel L. Swarns, “Senate Passes Bill on Building Border Fence,” New York Times, September 30, 2006; Calvin Woodward, “AP Fact Check: Trump’s Mythical Terrorist Tide from Mexico,” apnews.com, January 8, 2019; Salvador Rizzo, “A Guide to Understanding the Administration’s Spin on Terrorists at the Border,” Washington Post, January 14, 2019.

  199Argueta, “Border Security: Immigration Enforcement between Ports of Entry,” 6.

  200Julia Preston, “Homeland Security Cancels ‘Virtual Fence’ after $1 Billion Is Spent,” New York Times, January 14, 2011; Argueta, “Border Security: Immigration Enforcement between Ports of Entry,” 16.

  201Andreas, Border Games, 95–96.

  202Pratheepan Gulasekaram, “Why a Wall?,” UC Irvine Law Review 2, 2012, 157; Ana Campoy and Christopher Groskopf, “The Trump Tax: Human Smugglers at the US-Mexico Border Are Jacking Up Prices,” qz.com, March 17, 2017.

  203Office of the Press Secretary, “Statement by Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly on Southwest Border Security,” dhs.gov, March 8, 2017.

  204Sebastian Rotella and Tim Golden, “Despite Trump’s Tough Talk about Migrant Smugglers, He’s Undercut Efforts to Stop Them,” propublica.org, February 21, 2019.

  205Keller, “Re-thinking Illegal Entry and Re-entry,” 15.

  206“ENDGAME Office of Detention and Removal Strategic Plan, 2003–2012,” U.S. Department of Homeland Security, June 27, 2003.

  207Daniel Gonzalez, “How Many Mexicans Actually Cross the Border Illegally?” azcentral.com, October 9, 2016.

  208Argueta, “Border Security: Immigration Enforcement between Ports of Entry,” 24.

  209ACLU Arizona, “Know Your Rights with Border Patrol,” acluaz.org; Daniel Denvir, “Curbing the Unchecked Power of the U.S. Border Patrol,” citylab.com, October 30, 2015.

  210Nina Bernstein, “Border Sweeps in North Reach Miles into U.S.,” New York Times, August 29, 2010; Alexia Fernández Campbell, “Why Border Patrol Agents Can Board a Bus or Train and Ask if You’re a Citizen,” Vox, February 9, 2018; Families for Freedom and Immigrant Rights Clinic at New York University School of Law, “Uncovering USBP: Bonus Programs for United States Border Patrol Agents and the Arrest of Lawfully Present Individuals,” January 2013.

  211Rebecca Shapiro, “Customs Officers Demand ID from Passengers Leaving Domestic Flight at JFK,” huffpost.com, February 24, 2017.

  212ACLU, “The Constitution in the 100-Mile Border Zone,” aclu.org.

  213Noelle K. Brigden, “A Visible Geography of Invisible Journeys: Central American Migration and the Politics of Survival,” International Journal of Migration and Border Studies 4(1–2), 2018, 72; Christopher Wilson and Pedro Valenzuela, “Mexico’s Southern Border Strategy: Programa Frontera Sur,” Mexico Institute, July 11, 2014.

  214Brigden, “A Visible Geography of Invisible Journeys,” 72.

  215Robert M. Morgenthau, “The US Keeps 34,000 Immigrants in Detention Each Day Simply to Meet a Quota,” The Nation, August 13, 2014.

  216United States Department of Homeland Security, Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2017, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Immigration Statistics, 2017: 103.

  217E. Ann Carson, “Prisoners in 2016,” Bureau of Justice Statistics, January 2018, 13.

  218Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), “TRAC Immigration: Immigration Now 52 Percent of All Federal Criminal Prosecutions,” trac.syr.edu, November 28, 2016.

  219Jennifer Chan, “Immigration Detention Bed Quota Timeline,” immigrantjustice.org, January 13, 2017.

  220César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, “Immigration Detention Population Drops in FY ’13, While Removals Increase to All-Time High,” crimmigration.com, October 8, 2014.

  221Gruberg, “How For-Profit Companies Are Driving Immigration Detention Policies.”

  222Jeff Sommer, “Trump Immigration Crackdown Is Great for Private Prison Stocks,” New York Times, March 10, 2017.

  223Ellen Powell, “Sessions Memo: Reversal on Private Prisons Could Portend Shift on Justice, Observers Say,” Christian Science Monitor, February 24, 2017.

  224Christopher Dean Hopkins, “Private Prisons Back in Mix for Federal Inmates as Sessions Rescinds Order,” npr.org, February 23, 2017.

  225The Geo Group, Inc., Form 8-K, February 22, 2017.

  226United States Border Patrol, “Border Patrol Agent Nationwide Staffing by Fiscal Year.”

  227Sarah Hauer, “Is Donald Trump Right That Hillary Clinton Once ‘Wanted a Wall’ on the Mexican Border?,” politifact.com, August 15, 2016.

  Chapter Three

  *Save for the Alien Enemies Act, which remains on the books. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt used the law to detain Japanese, German and Italian “enemy aliens” during World War II, alongside the larger Japanese internment.

  1Nicholas Kulish, “Dr. John Tanton, Quiet Catalyst in Anti-Immigration Drive, Dies at 85,” New York Times, July 18, 2019.

  2Michael Kagan, “Is the Chinese Exclusion Case Still Good Law? (The President Is Trying to Find Out),” Nevada Law Journal Forum 1, 2017, 80–91.

  3Barbara Jeanne Fields, “Slavery, Race and Ideology in the United States of America,” New Left Review, May/June 1990.

  4Aziz Rana, The Two Faces of American Freedom, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010, 58–60; Aaron S. Fogleman, “From Slaves, Convicts, and Servants to Free Passengers: The Transformation of Immigration in the Era of the American Revolution,” Journal of American History, 85(1), 1998, 44–71.

  5Rana, Two Faces of American Freedom, 89–90.

  6Ibid., 95.

  7Donald Ratcliffe, “The Right to Vote and the Rise of Democracy, 1787–1828,” Journal of the Early Rep
ublic 33(2), 2013, 220.

  8Tichenor, Dividing Line, 53–5.

  9Paul Frymer, Building an American Empire: The Era of Territorial and Political Expansion, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017, 9, 18, 132.

  10Hidetaka Hirota, Expelling the Poor: Atlantic Seaboard States and the Nineteenth-Century Origins of American Immigration Policy, New York: Oxford University Press, 2017, 42; Anna O. Law, “Lunatics, Idiots, Paupers, and Negro Seamen—Immigration, Federalism and the Early American State,” Studies in American Political Development 28(2), 2014, 107–17.

  11Hiroshi Motomura, Americans in Waiting: The Lost Story of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States, New York: Oxford University Press, 2007, 70–71.

  12Ian Haney López, White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race, New York: New York University Press, 2006, 1–3, 70.

  13Ariela J. Gross, “The Caucasian Cloak: Mexican-Americans and the Politics of Whiteness in the Twentieth-Century Southwest,” Georgetown Law Journal 95, 2007, 347–8.

  14Erika Lee, “The Chinese Exclusion Example: Race, Immigration, and American Gatekeeping, 1882–1924,” Journal of American Ethnic History 21(3), 2002, 46.

  15Frymer, Building an American Empire, 203–4.

  16Law, “Lunatics, Idiots, Paupers, and Negro Seamen,” 115.

  17Tichenor, Dividing Lines, 61–63.

  18Hirota, Expelling the Poor, 3–8.

  19Eric Foner, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery, New York: W.W. Norton, 127–31, 236–60.

  20DeNeen L. Brown, “When Portland Banned Blacks: Oregon’s Shameful History as an ‘All-White’ State,” Washington Post, June 7, 2017.

  21Rana, The Two Faces of American Freedom, 89–90.

  22Tichenor, Dividing Lines, 100.

  23Walter M. Merrill and Louis Ruchames, eds., The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison, vol. 6, 1868–1879, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1981, 558.

  24Frymer, Building an American Empire, 152.

  25Ibid., 132.

  26William H. Seward, [Untitled letter to the diplomatic and consular officers of the United States], “Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the First Session Thirty-Eighth Congress,” Part II, history.state.gov.