The Whites-Only Immigration Regime

After the U.S. Civil War, federal authorities slowly built a whites-only immigration regime that targeted Black and other non-white immigrants for exclusion, punishment, and removal. By 1930, the regime was complete, making it nearly impossible for Black, Mexican, and Asian immigrants to enter the United States. During the Civil Rights Movement, Congress amended the regime’s admission system, making it possible for non-white immigrants to begin entering and settling in the United States in large numbers. But federal authorities have yet to fully repeal and replace the whites-only immigration regime, leaving intact the enforcement tactics designed to target non-white immigrants for exclusion, punishment, and removal. This talk tracks the rise of the whites-only immigration regime and how federal authorities have yet to abolish it.

This is the Ray Allen Billington Lecture in the History of the American West.