Who is an American?

Since 1776, American politicians have had public conversations around who is to be considered a citizen. While the Black American population had been forcefully taken to the United States and forced into slavery, the Native American population had been primarily living in their sovereign tribal nations. As a result, although both communities were living within the same land base as the newly named Americans, they were not considered citizens and therefore did not benefit from any of the rights granted through The United States Constitution. As a matter of fact, it was not until 1868 that Black people would be granted citizenship, and 1924 that Native Americans would be.

There is nothing new about anxiety over immigration in the United States. For its entire history, citizens have worried about who is entering the country and the changes that might result. This is largely due to the xenophobia (dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries) and nativism (the policy of protecting the interests of native-born or established inhabitants against those of immigrants) that have historically existed within American society. Such concerns began to flare once again beginning in the 1980s, as White Americans started to recognize that the White majority would soon be a demographic minority.

Figure 1. This map, based on the 2000 census, indicates the dominant ethnicity in different parts of the country. Note the heavy concentration of African Americans (dark purple) in the South, and the large numbers of those of Mexican ancestry (pink) in California and the Southwest. Why do you think so many in the Upper South are designated as simply American (light yellow)?

The nation’s increasing diversity prompted actions motivated by whitelash (a hostile or violent reaction by White people to the advances or influx of other racial or ethnic groups). Some social conservatives worked to identify American culture as one of European heritage. This was especially obvious in their attempts to legally designate English as the official language of the United States. This movement was particularly strong in areas of the country with large Spanish-speaking populations such as Arizona, where, in 2006, three-quarters of voters approved a proposition to make English the official language in the state. Proponents in Arizona and elsewhere argued that these laws were necessary, because recent immigrants, especially Hispanic newcomers, were not being sufficiently acculturated to white, middle-class culture. Opponents countered that English was already the de facto official language, and codifying it into law would only amount to unnecessary discrimination.

Arizona Bans Mexican American Studies

Figure 2. Protesters are seen in June 2011 in support of the Tucson Unified School District’s Mexican-American studies program. A new state law effectively ended the program saying it was divisive.

In 2010, Arizona passed a law barring the teaching of any class that promoted “resentment” of students of other races or encouraged “ethnic solidarity.” The ban, to take effect on December 31 of that year, included a popular Mexican American studies program taught at elementary, middle, and high schools in the city of Tucson. The program, which focused on teaching students about Mexican American history and literature, was begun in 1998, to convert high absentee rates and low academic performance among Latino students, and proved highly successful. Public school superintendent Tom Horne objected to the course, however, claiming it encouraged resentment of White Americans and of the U.S. government, and improperly encouraged students to think of themselves as members of a race instead of as individuals.

Tucson was ordered to end its Mexican American studies program or lose 10 percent of the school system’s funding, approximately $3 million each month. In 2012, the Tucson school board voted to end the program. A former student and his mother filed a suit in federal court, claiming that the law, which did not prohibit programs teaching Indian students about their culture, was discriminatory and violated the First Amendment rights of Tucson’s students. In March 2013, the court found in favor of the state, ruling that the law was not discriminatory, because it targeted classes, and not students or teachers, and that preventing the teaching of Mexican studies classes did not intrude on students’ constitutional rights. The court did, however, declare the part of the law prohibiting classes designed for members of particular ethnic groups to be unconstitutional.

Anti-Immigration Sentiment

An increase in illegal immigration coupled with the white-supremacist belief that all immigrants must assimilate into White-dominant American society fueled a fire that resulted in a legal crackdown on all forms of immigration. The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act proposed by Congress in 2006 sought to simultaneously strengthen security along the U.S.-Mexico border (a task for the Department of Homeland Security), increase the number of temporary “guest workers” allowed in the United States, and provide a pathway for long-term U.S. residents who had entered the country illegally to gain legal status. It also sought to establish English as a “common and unifying language” for the nation. The bill and a similar amended version both failed to become law.

With unemployment rates soaring during the Great Recession, anxiety over illegal immigration rose. This stems from the xenophobic belief that immigrants take jobs away from American citizens. At the same time the anxiety rose, the incoming flow of immigrants slowed. State legislatures in Alabama and Arizona passed strict new laws that required police and other officials to verify the immigration status of those they thought had entered the country illegally. In Alabama, the new law made it a crime to rent housing to undocumented immigrants, thus making it difficult for these immigrants to live within the state. Both laws have been challenged in court, and portions have been deemed unconstitutional or otherwise blocked.

Children at the U.S.-Mexico Border

Beginning in October 2013, states along the U.S.-Mexico border faced an increase in the immigration of children from a handful of Central American countries. Approximately fifty-two thousand children, some unaccompanied, were taken into custody as they reached the United States. A study by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimated that 58 percent of those migrants, largely from El Salvador and Honduras, were propelled towards the United States by poverty, violence, and the potential for exploitation in their home countries. Because of a 2008 law originally intended to protect victims of human trafficking, these Central American children were guaranteed a court hearing. This led to an increase of children stuck in limbo inside of waiting facilities at the border, and a later 2018 policy allowed for the separation of migrant families hoping to enter the U.S., with parents taken to await trial in separate facilities as children. This led to public outcry about children being held in cages at the border.