Immigration

Abstract

This chapter discussed the history of immigration in the United States. This included the Asian Exclusion Laws and Quota Laws of the 1920s, which restricted immigration through the social construct of race in a policy, heavily influenced by the theory of eugenics. Many historians have concluded that these policies formed the basis of the laws that enforced racial segregation. Following the Holocaust, the international community attempted to enact treaties that would protect refugees seeking asylum. However, as undocumented immigrants from Northern Triangle countries have attempted to enter the United States, they have been subjected to apprehension, detentions, and deportation. Attempts to protect unaccompanied minors have resulted in the passage of laws that allow juveniles to have special immigrant status, but without access to attorneys; many children are unable to take advantage of these protections. The research on the traumatic impact of family separations on children indicates that due process protections must be expanded, along with increased transparency in the immigration courts, and adherence to international treaties.