About DukeEngage Tucson 2010

Immigration is perhaps the single largest domestic challenge facing both the United States and Mexico today. People die nearly every week attempting to cross the border. Hostilities against immigrants in the U.S. rise daily. Local, state, and international relations are increasingly strained.

For eight weeks this summer, seven students have been given the opportunity to travel to Tucson, Arizona and Nogales, Mexico to study the many faces of immigration. Following two weeks of meetings with local activists, a Border Patrol agent, a federal public defender, lawyers, members of the Tohono O’odham Nation, maquiladora owners, Grupos Beta employees, migrants, and local farmers, we will spend six weeks partnered with Southside Day Labor Camp, BorderLinks, or Humane Borders in order to further immerse ourselves in the issues of immigration.

This blog chronicles our experiences and our perspectives on what we learn while here in Arizona. We hope our stories are interesting and informative.


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Monday, June 14, 2010

US Immigration History: 1940-1969

- 1942-1964: Bracero Program

o Guest-worker treaty between US and Mexico

o Ended due to reports of illegal immigrants, illegal immigrants, and improved farming techniques

o More than 4.5 million Mexicans participated

- 1943:

o Alien Land Laws in Utah, Nebraska and Arkansas

o Immigration Act of 1943

§ Repealed Asian exclusion laws

- 1945: Alien Land Law in Minnesota

- 1950-1965: The first wave of post-Castro immigrants. They received much help from the US government including food, clothes, financial assistance, health assistance, job search assistance, and bilingual education.

- 1952:

o McCarran-Walter Act / Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952

§ Declared Cubans to be victims of communism and exempted these immigrants from the immigration quotas in effect at the time.

§ Eased immigration restrictions on Asians

- 1954: Operation Wetback

o INS commissioner General Joseph “Jumpin’ Joe” Swing launched a plan aimed on cracking down on illegal aliens but more often focused on Mexicans.

o Southeastern state were militarized as police searched neighborhoods for illegal aliens

o Border Patrol agents adopted the practice of stopping people who looked as if they were Mexican and asking for their identification

o Mexicans who were deported were dropped off deep in Mexico so that it would be more difficult for them to return to the US

o Sometimes illegal aliens were deported along with their American-born children

o Nearly 4 million Mexicans deported

- 1964: The first maquiladoras were built in Mexican border towns. These factories, the majority of which were owned by American corporations, were a source of cheap labor.

- 1965: Immigration and Nationality Act

o Removed restrictions on non-European immigration, thus eliminating most of the racially and nationally discriminatory immigration policies

o However, the number of immigrants permitted to emigrate was capped by Eastern and Western hemisphere

- 1965-1973:Cuban immigrants arrived on the Freedom Flights

- 1966: Cuban Adjustment Act

o Eased requirements for Cuban immigrants to obtain permanent residency, thus speeding up the process to obtain citizenship.

- 1968: Bilingual Education Act of 1968

o Federal law authorizing federal assistance to school children with weak English-speaking abilities

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/mexico704/history/timeline.html

Immigration in U.S. History Edited by Carl Bankston & Danielle Hidalgo

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