Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America

Influential in the early 20th century, eugenicists were “strict biological determinists who believed that intelligence, morality, and other social characteristics were permanently fixed in race” (24). This type of thinking led to restrictive immigration policies and the denial of citizenship to Asian immigrants.

Globalization refers to the interconnectedness of the world. Ngai highlights that while products, currencies, and information freely cross borders, human migrants remain bound by territorial borders and are criminalized for seeking work in a global economy (xxi).

While heralded as a progressive law for re-allocating numerical quotas equally, the Hart-Celler Immigration Act of 1965 retained numerical quotas and established them for the first time in the Western Hemisphere. For this reason, Ngai stresses the continuities between this law and the 1924 Immigration Act. She additionally blames this legal approach for creating illegal aliens.

Illegal aliens are not US citizens and are unlawfully present in the US, from an unauthorized border crossing or the expiration of a visa, or have committed a deportable offense. While Ngai uses the term “undocumented” at times, she explains that the term undocumented did not become relevant until the “modern regime of immigration restriction” (xix) came into being.

The JACL strongly supported assimilation and American patriotism. It voted to bar those who renounced their citizenship from membership. Ngai explains the spectrum of Japanese American feelings toward Japan and the US, noting that most had divided loyalties. The JACL was at the patriotic end of the spectrum.

The Johnson-Reed Immigration Act established numerical quotas for immigrants for the first time in US history. Per Ngai, this restrictionist approach created illegal aliens. Additionally, the law heavily favored immigration from northern Europe and made immigration from Asia and Africa virtually impossible. Outside of Europe and the Western Hemisphere, the minimum quota of only 100 was assigned to countries. The biased quotas for countries of national origin ensured the presence of racial hierarchies in US immigration law.

Undocumented immigrants lack the paperwork or visa for lawful admission into the US. Ngai explains that visas were not required at all until after World War I. Additionally, not all illegal aliens are illegal because they lack documents.