Whose America?: U.S. Immigration Policy since 1980

by María Cristina García (Editor), Elliott Young (contributor), Monique Laney (Contributor)

A centerpiece of contemporary politics, draconian immigration policies have been long in the making. Maria Cristina Garcia and Maddalena Marinari edit works that examine the post-1980 response of legislation and policy to issues like undocumented immigration, economic shifts, national security, and human rights. Contributors engage with a wide range of ideas, including the effect of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act and other laws on the flow of migrants and forms of entry; the impact of neoliberalism and post-Cold War political realignment; the complexities of policing and border enforcement; and the experiences of immigrant groups in communities across the United States.
Up-to-date yet rooted in history, Whose America? provides a sophisticated account of recent immigration policy while mapping the ideological struggle to answer an essential which people have the right to make America their home or refuge?


Leisy Abrego, Carl Bon Tempo, Julio Capó, Jr., Carly Goodman, Julia Rose Kraut, Monique Laney, Carl Lindskoog, Yael Schacher, and Elliott Young

393 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 18, 2023

About the author

Maria Cristina Garcia is an historian, currently the Howard A. Newman Professor of American Studies at Cornell University. Her work focuses on the history of immigrants and refugees in the Americas.

Garcia received her B.A. from Georgetown University and her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Society of American Historians. She is a recipient of a 2016 Andrew Carnegie Fellowship. She was also a former fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.