From the earliest days of nationhood, the United States has determined who might enter the country and who might be naturalized. In this sweeping review of US immigration policies, Bill Ong Hing points to the racial, ethnic, and social struggles over who should be welcomed into the community of citizens. He shows how shifting visions of America have shaped policies governing asylum, exclusion, amnesty, and border policing. Written for a broad audience, Defining America Through Immigration Policy sets the continuing debates about immigration in the context of what value we as a people have assigned to cultural pluralism in various eras. Hing examines the competing visions of America reflected in immigration debates over the last 225 years. For instance, he compares the rationales and regulations that limited immigration of southern and eastern Europeans to those that excluded Asians in the nineteenth century. He offers a detailed history of the policies and enforcement procedures put in place to limit migration from Mexico, and indicts current border control measures as immoral. He probes into little discussed issues such as the exclusion of gays and lesbians and the impact of political considerations on the availability of amnesty and asylum to various groups of migrants. Hing's spirited discussion and sophisticated analysis will appeal to readers in a wide spectrum of academic disciplines as well as those general readers interested in America's on-going attempts to make one of many.

Bill Ong Hing is Professor of Law and Asian American Studies at the University of California, Davis. His previous books include To Be an American: Cultural Pluralism and the Rhetoric of Assimilation and Making and Remaking Asian America through Immigration Policy.

"[Hing's] understanding of history, drawn from personal experience andparticipation, is piercing and helps to put the recent hysteria inperspective. In his book, he applies the lessons of his decades-longresearch and experience to fundamental issues at a critical time in ournation's history."—from the Foreword by Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director, American Civil Liberties Union

"Defining America through Immigration Policy is an excellent book that can be recommended enthusiastically. Bill Ong Hing is a leading scholar of immigration. This book is a landmark work. Hing is thorough, and covers everything from Benjamin Franklin's attacks on German immigrants to the nativism of the turn-of-the-century directed towards Asians, Southern and Eastern Europeans, Catholics and Jews to contemporary border enforcement, undocumented migration, deportation procedures, and internal migration. He conveys the breadth and depth of his research with ample documentation and presents progressive arguments that should influence policy-makers."—Frank H. Wu, Professor of Law, Howard University, and author of Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White

"Engagingly contemporary (with historical roots) and at the same time carefully detailed in its coverage, Defining America through Immigration Policy is on the forefront of immigration law and policy theorizing. Hing's structure is straightforward, and his framework for organizing the wide range of immigration law issues is effective. He tells a compelling and disturbing social/legal story that gives human faces to congressional acts, executive policies, and frontline enforcement. Hing's blended approach—chronological, contextual, and specific—provides a readily accessible way into what could otherwise be an information morass. This significant strength distinguishes Defining America through Political Participation."—Eric K. Yamamoto, Professor of Law, University of Hawaii School of Law