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During the 2016 election debates, candidate Trump proposed a solid wall as a solution for limiting illegal immigration from Mexico. The wall would stretch between the United States and Mexico while supporting dispersed checkpoints along the boundary. Mae Ngai, professor of Asian American Studies at Columbia University traced the intricate history of immigration legislation and construction of identities through immigration during the 20th century in her book, ''Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America''. Ngai focuses on the years 1924 to 1965, which was marked by the passage of the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act of 1924 that implemented a national origins quota system. This act signaled the beginning of politicizing immigrants into categories of undesirables such as criminals and anarchist.

Thus, immigration reform became analogous with discussions of civil rights through a struggle for membership and recognition as a citizen. Immigration reform was particularly evident in the book’s conclusion in discussing a post-World War II America in which an influx of American Jews, Italian Americans, and Greek Americans, and others struggled for equality during the post-New Deal. While lengthy and greatly detailed, Ngai compacted many of her major points into the conclusion that American cultural pluralism was becoming more prevalent which criticizes ideas of American nativism and cultural homogenizing assimilation in the United States.

*[[Political Parties and American Political Development from the Age of Jackson to the Age of Lincoln - Book Review]]

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[[Category:20th Century History]] [[Category:Book Review]] [[Category:United States History]][[Category:Immigration History]] [[Category:Videri.org]]