The Past as Prologue: Migration and Remain in the 19th Century

Who has the right to enter U.S. territory, move across it, and settle here? In the 19th century, the U.S. federal system made it difficult for politically unpopular groups to migrate and remain by giving migration control to the states. It took over a century for the federal government to gain control of migration policy in the late 19th century, but nationalization did not result in freer movement. This Constitution Day talk analyzes how the constitutional text interacted with the politics of a different era to shape the content and trajectory of U.S. migration policy.