Date of Award

Summer 8-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Sociology & Criminal Justice

Program/Concentration

Criminology and Criminal Justice

Committee Director

Ruth Triplett

Committee Member

Isabel L. Arriagada Gajewski

Committee Member

Amanda M. Petersen

Abstract

This project contributes to the realm of crimmigration through a historical analysis of immigration law from the perspectives of slavery and anti-Blackness. In expanding Rhonda Magee’s (2009) thesis that the foundations of the United States’ immigration system emerge out of the transatlantic slave trade, this project suggests that the development of immigration law since the abolition of chattel slavery has not escaped its origins. As such, the attempt to control mobility remains embedded within the dynamics of slavery and anti-Black racism. In crafting this argument, this project deploys a Critical Discourse Analysis of the federal congressional floor debates surrounding three essential immigration policies: the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924, and the Hart-Celler Act of 1965. The results of this analysis reveal that the preservation of racial slavery and anti-Blackness constitute the operative frameworks that inform, guide, and shape immigration legislation. In light of these findings, this project directly challenges the possibility of constructing and enforcing an immigration system that is not fundamentally rooted in anti-Black desires and interests.

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DOI

10.25777/a9dv-8q46

ISBN

9798193216278

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