Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America

Focusing on the period from 1924 through 1965, Ngai describes how US immigration policies were shaped by world events. The United States’ entry into World War I was controversial, with many protesting against it. Although Americans from all backgrounds protested the war, opposition to the war became associated with southern and eastern European radicals in the American imagination. In the war’s aftermath, the number of displaced persons rose and those opposed to immigration argued for restrictive laws. The 1924 Immigration Act favored northern European over southern and eastern European immigration, completely excluding Asians and Africans. However, as a result of the earlier Spanish-American War, the US possessed the Philippines as a colony. Agribusinesses therefore recruited Filipino immigrants, who could come to the US with no restrictions. When white individuals objected to their presence, they successfully lobbied for Filipino independence and stopped the flow of immigration.

Given the scarcity of work and poverty during the Great Depression in the 1930s, Mexican workers, both citizens and immigrants, faced a hostile environment and were expelled from the US in large numbers. World War II changed the fortunes of Chinese Americans and immigrants due to China’s alliance with the US. The Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943, but relations turned with the Communist Revolution in China and the onset of the Cold War. The government then sought to curb Chinese immigration. Japanese Americans and immigrants were interned at camps for the duration of the World War II. Since Japan was an enemy, those of Japanese descent were branded disloyal. German and Italian Americans were not so treated. The 1950s saw an intensification of the Communist Scare. Accordingly, a 1952 law extended the grounds for expelling immigrants and allowed for the denationalization of those in subversive organizations.

The Hart-Celler Immigration Act of 1965 came during the Civil Rights era. It ended the openly discriminatory system of national origins quotas, instead basing immigration on a system of formal equality. However, it retained numerical restrictions and applied them for the first time to the Western Hemisphere. The liberalism of the 1960s was thus concerned more with procedural equality than substantive results, with Ngai arguing that the system remained tainted with racial unfairness.