Immigration

The United States Is Not “a Nation of Immigrants”

Celebrations of multiculturalism obscure the country’s settler colonial history.

The United States Can Afford More Refugees

East African countries host seven times more refugees than we do. Their policies look beyond their borders; so should ours.

How the Modern NRA Was Born at the Border

Watch our release of the documentary short The Rifleman. Then read an interview with the filmmaker.

Employers, Not Immigrants, Hurt American Workers

Non-college-educated U.S.-born workers have every reason to be enraged by declining wages and living standards, but more restrictive immigration policies won’t solve these problems.

“The People Really Have the Power”

Noam Chomsky on the Capitol coup attempt, 2020 unrest, and the Biden administration.

Immigration Enforcement and the Afterlife of the Slave Ship

Coast Guard techniques for blocking Haitian asylum seekers have their roots in the slave trade. Understanding these connections can help us disentangle immigration policy from white nationalism.

The Cruelty of Trump’s ICE Under COVID-19

The Trump administration has rejected calls for mass humanitarian release and continues to deport detainees to Latin America.

Solidarity Through Poetry

When Celes Tisdale led poetry workshops at Attica State Prison, soon after the 1971 uprising, some of the prisoners were still recovering from gunshots.

The Pruner’s Tale

An ancient pilgrimage route inspires a project of cooperative storytelling which pairs writers with detained immigrants, such as the Mexican horticulturalist in this story.

Rethinking Birthright

We need a more just conception of citizenship—one that abolishes the distinction between “natural” and naturalized citizens.

The Government Is Targeting Immigration Lawyers, Activists, and Reporters

A leaked Homeland Security database confirms what many suspected: the U.S. government is trying to punish and intimidate people advocating for immigrant rights.

Is Citizenship Meaningless?

A reading list on surveillance, security, and citizenship-for-sale.

Citizenship v. The Surveillance State

We have surrendered the cherished value of “innocent until proven guilty” for the security logic that we are all “risky until proven safe.”

What White Supremacists Know

The violent theft of land and capital is at the core of the U.S. experiment: the U.S. military got its start in the wars against Native Americans.

The Origins of Birthright Citizenship

The Fourteenth Amendment captures the idea that no people born in the United States should be forced to live in the shadows.

Imperfect Remembrance

Nostalgia for Svetlana Boym

The Border President

Trump v. Hawaii is not about religion. It’s about the president’s unlimited power at the border.

The Anti-Immigration Bible

Jeff Sessions is fond of citing the Bible to support the persecution of immigrants, in stark contrast to a long tradition of biblical interpretation.

Trumpism Before Trump

We can’t fully appreciate the current anti-immigration moment without understanding the decades-long investment by right-wing movement politics.

California Today, America Tomorrow

Political lessons from the state of resistance

The Border Is Not a Wall

It is an ever-widening surveillance zone that turns borderland citizens into guardians of the state.

Immigrants Welcome*

Trump’s Muslim ban was not just an aberration. U.S. citizenship has long been predicated on whiteness as it was understood in 1790.

Who Gets the Right to Stay?

The moral right of states to apprehend and deport irregular migrants erodes with the passage of time.

Open for Business, Not Human Rights: Trump’s Priorities in Central America

A recent conference made it clear: military and corporate interests will prevail.

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