In their work, both George J. Sanchez and Kelly Lytle Hernandez discuss race as well as the black-white paradigm in which Latinos do not have a solid place. In Race, Nation, and Culture in Recent Immigration Studies, Sanchez argues that the future of immigration history depends on the field’s ability to incorporate insights of race, nation, and culture that develop. Meanwhile, in Migra!: A History of the U.S. Border Patrol, Lytle Hernandez discusses how the border is controlled, race, and the racialization of migration control. They both cite past immigration laws in their work and discuss the experiences of whites, blacks, and Mexicans in the United States.
In order to support his argument, George J. Sanchez uses many examples to discuss the
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She starts off her book by discussing how Superman came about during the time that immigration policies began to target those of Mexican descent, which occurred during the early 1940s when the United States Border Patrol began to focus a lot of their attention to the southern border. She explains that this started to occur when there was an effort to maintain distinctions between black and white individuals. In addition to this, the 1924 National Origins Act that was passed by Anglo-American nativists who wanted to limit immigration from other places besides a few European countries to create a white American race; however, this was difficult because immigration from the Western Hemisphere was still allowed. Mexicans were unable to find a place in the black/white divide because their place in the borderlands presented them as neither. Some Mexican Americans, especially those of Spanish descent, tried to distance themselves from Mexican immigrants and African Americans because they realized they would benefit more by associating themselves with white society. Some advocated for limited Mexican immigration into the United States since they realized that they would make it difficult for them to integrate into white society because Mexicans were typically seen as “poor, dark-skinned, and did not speak English.” This shows how Mexican officials helped shape the way migration was handled as well as how they contributed to the racial subordination they faced in the United