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Endgame—The Prelude and the Aftermath

Raids, Race, and Labor before and after Postville

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US Immigration Reform and Its Global Impact
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Abstract

Immigration laws—and raids—have been used throughout US history as a means of demographic control, with profound racial, labor, and political implications. Government agencies and enforcement mechanisms have been periodically restructured and strategically tailored to exert different modes of control over emerging populations. A brief historical sketch of the politics of immigration, as they have been applied to the different nationalities and ethnicities that came to form the makeup of the United States, shows some surprising parallels with the present, which shed light on the contemporary immigration debate.2

An evil exists that threatens every man, woman, and child of this great country. We must take steps to ensure our domestic security and protect our Homeland.

—Adolph Hitler, 19331

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Notes

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© 2013 Erik Camayd-Freixas

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Camayd-Freixas, E. (2013). Endgame—The Prelude and the Aftermath. In: US Immigration Reform and Its Global Impact. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137106780_8

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