Immigration Crisis and Reform

Event Details

Because of technical difficulties, we will not be able to live stream this program online. Our apologies for the inconvenience.

The history of immigration policy provides the focus of the first GREAT ISSUES event of the spring 2015 semester. Current Miller Center National Fellow ADAM GOODMAN (University of Pennsylvania) will discuss “Operation Wetback,” a 1954 U.S. government effort to encourage – or force – undocumented immigrants to leave the country. Goodman argues that “Operation Wetback” represents the deep roots of modern “self-deportation” policies that rely on massive publicity campaigns and intimidation. Through such mechanisms, the state maintains a strong influence over what is claimed to be a "voluntary" act. The event will provide critical historical context that is often missing from current debates over immigration reform.

ADAM GOODMAN is a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of Pennsylvania and a current Miller Center National Fellow. His dissertation examines the history of the deportation of Mexicans from the United States since 1942. Goodman's work has been supported by a Fulbright-García Robles fellowship, the Immigration and Ethnic History Society's George E. Pozzetta Dissertation Award, and a NEH Summer Seminar on rethinking international migration. He is also a Dean’s Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. Goodman’s writing on U.S. and Mexican politics, migration, and deportation has appeared in the Journal of American Ethnic History, Immigrants & Minorities, The Nation, Boston Review, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Dallas Morning News, Salon, and Dissent, among other outlets.