When Douglas Massey asks for an essay, it’s time to celebrate. That’s exactly what I did when he invited me to contribute to an issue of Dædalus, the journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. At the time I had no idea who else he was reaching out to. Last week, the magazine came out and I’m in awe to find myself in such company. Like Massey, these are scholars from a variety of disciplines whose work I’ve read and learned from for decades. As a group, these are the types of scholars who inspire me—hard-working, rigorous, passionate intellectuals.
My essay, Criminalizing Migration, positions Trump era demonization within a broader pattern of bipartisan attacks on migrants. In the essay, I reject the notion that President Trump is an extremist whose migration policies marked a radical departure from past practices. Trump is certainly an extremist, but merely the extreme end of a long, jagged trend of tarring migrants, I write. Articles in the collection, Immigration, Nativism & Race in the United States are available at the American Academy’s website.
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