U.S. reaches agreements with Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala to increase enforcement against migration

In this lesson, students will study the nature of immigration and trace the history of immigration in the United States from its founding to the first half of the twentieth century. They will gain an understanding of the experience of immigrants in the 1800s, the factors that brought them to the United States, and the challenges they faced upon their arrival. Students will thus be better equipped to engage in the modern conversation on immigration in the United States.

This lesson provides a background on the history of immigration policy in the United States, that is, the philosophical origins, legal debates, and legal history from the Founding of the nation to the late 1900s. Students will come to understand how American lawmakers viewed immigrants and the reasoning behind the evolving nature of immigration policy.

In this lesson, students will prepare and present their own plan for dealing with immigration in the United States. They will engage first-hand with the modern day debate on immigration and wrestle with the consequences of the different proposals. In doing so, they will refine their research, writing, and presentations skills as well as gain an understanding of how to engage with civility in a discussion about a sensitive topic.

May 6, 2020, marked 138 years since the signing of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Passed by Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur, the act banned Chinese immigration into the United States for ten years. Many in the U.S. despised Chinese immigrants, a group they believed did not integrate well into American culture and took jobs from Americans.

Tony Williams is joined by Dr. Stephanie Hinnershitz, author and assistant professor of history at Cleveland State University, as they discuss her thought-provoking essay on the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 in BRI’s new digital textbook, Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. She chronicles the social, economic, and political factors that compelled many people to immigrate to the United States from China in the late 19th century, as well as the tragic violence and xenophobia that Chinese laborers routinely suffered. How did these tensions culminate in the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, and what impact did this discriminatory law have on society?

The rise in immigration to the United States in the 1840's altered the economic, cultural, and political climate of the nation in the first half of the 19th century.

Have American views on immigration changed over time? In this episode, Mary walks through "The Anti-Chinese Wall" cartoon by Friedrich Graetz to understand the discriminatory reasons why many Americans objected to Chinese immigration in the late 19th century, and what they revealed about many Americans' beliefs during the time. How did the debate against Chinese immigration turn into the Chinese Exclusion Act?