Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of America

401 Pages·2004·2.657 MB·English

by  Mae M. Ngai

IMPOSSIBLE SUBJECTS
POLITICS AND SOCIETY IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICA
Series Editors
William Chafe, Gary Gerstle, Linda Gordon, and Julian Zelizer
A list of titles in this series appears at the back of the book
Mae M. Ngai
IMPOSSIBLE
SUBJECTS
ILLEGAL ALIENS AND THE
MAKING OF MODERN AMERICA
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON AND OXFORD
Copyright (cid:1) 2004 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 3 Market Place,
Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1SY
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ngai, Mae M.
Impossible subjects : illegal aliens and the making of modern America / Mae M. Ngai.
p. cm. — (Politics and society in twentieth-century America)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-691-07471-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Illegal aliens—United States—History. 2. Emigration and immigration law—United
States—History. 3. Citizenship—United States—History. I. Title. II. Series.
KF4800.N485 2004
342.73(cid:2)083—dc21 2003044486
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in Minion Typeface
Printed on acid-free paper. (cid:1)
www.pupress.princeton.edu
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To the memory of
Shih-hsun Ngai
and to
Hsueh-hwa Wang Ngai and
Michael S. Hing

It has always been easier, it always
will be easier, to think of someone as
a noncitizen than to
decide that he is a nonperson.
—A B, “Citizenship in the American Constitution”

Table of Contents
List of Figures and Illustrations xi
List of Tables xiii
Acknowledgments xv
Note on Language and Terminology xix
Introduction
Illegal Aliens: A Problem of Law and History 1
PART I: THE REGIME OF QUOTAS AND PAPERS 15
One
The Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 and the Reconstruction of
Race in Immigration Law 21
Two
Deportation Policy and the Making and Unmaking
of Illegal Aliens 56
PART II: MIGRANTS AT THE MARGINS OF LAW
AND NATION 91
Three
From Colonial Subject to Undesirable Alien: Filipino Migration
in the Invisible Empire 96
Four
Braceros, “Wetbacks,” and the National Boundaries of Class 127
PART III: WAR, NATIONALISM, AND
ALIEN CITIZENSHIP 167
Five
The World War II Internment of Japanese Americans and
the Citizenship Renunciation Cases 175
Six
The Cold War Chinese Immigration Crisis and the
Confession Cases 202