Immigration Reforms through History: An Ongoing Legal Narrative – 6719

Students in the Immigration Reforms through History: An Ongoing Legal Narrative seminar will learn about major immigration reforms through the lens of the social, political, economic and cultural context that ushered their passage. Students will be presented with a mosaic of information to place them in the place and time of the respective era to facilitate a deeper understanding of the immigration law narrative and how perceptions of race and identity result in policy and legal reform. The course will examine important portions of each reform bill including the intended goals of legislators and other influential factors such as demographic, economic and political data. The class will explore societal perceptions of race and immigration in primary source documents and multimedia from each reform period including film, music, art and news stories.

This seminar is structured around major immigration reforms and the pilot seminar will highlight the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 and Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. The course will be divided into two seminar sessions per reform period. For each era, the seminar will examine the societal context that led to the legislation, the language of law and the broader policies and assumptions that it reflects. Seminar discussions will also be directed towards understanding how portions of the law currently operate and fit into a historical immigration law narrative.

NOTE: this course meets every other week. The Fall 2019 meeting dates are: 9/3, 9/17, 10/1, 10/15, 10/29, 11/12,  and 11/26.