History 234: Final Exam Identification Study

This was made for my History 234 exam with Julia B. Haager in Fall 2025

Pogroms and May Laws

Pogroms were violent attacks against Jewish communities in the Russian Empire, and the 1882 May Laws restricted where Jews could live and work; both were carried out under Tsarist rule in the 1880s and centered in the Pale of Settlement. Guiding Question: How did state-sponsored violence and legal discrimination push Jewish migration and shape U.S. attitudes toward these migrants?

Amerika Village

“Amerika villages” were rural German communities transformed by return migrants who used U.S. earnings to build homes and improve local infrastructure during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Guiding Question: How does circular migration complicate simple ideas of assimilation and one-way movement?

Madison Grant’s The Passing of the Great Race

This 1916 book by Madison Grant argued Northern Europeans were racially superior and claimed immigration threatened the “Nordic race,” influencing eugenics and restrictive immigration policies. Guiding Question: How did Grant’s ideas justify exclusion?

Asiatic Barred Zone, 1917

The 1917 Immigration Act created a barred geographic zone covering most of Asia and the Pacific, banning immigration from those regions through racialized exclusion. Guiding Question: How did this expand racial gatekeeping?

Johnson-Reed Act, 1924

This law established strict national-origins quotas favoring Northern/Western Europeans and banned most Asian immigration, reshaping U.S. demographics for decades. Guiding Question: How did eugenics shape quota systems?

Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896

This Supreme Court ruling upheld “separate but equal,” legalizing segregation and reinforcing racial hierarchies that influenced debates over who could assimilate. Guiding Question: How did segregation shape ideas of Americanness?

Buck v. Bell, 1927

The Supreme Court upheld forced sterilization of people labeled “unfit,” legitimizing eugenics thinking nationwide. Guiding Question: How did eugenics connect to exclusionary immigration policy?

The Gentlemen’s Agreement, 1907–1908

This informal U.S.–Japan agreement restricted Japanese labor immigration by limiting passports while the U.S. reduced discrimination against Japanese already in America. Guiding Question: Why did the U.S. use diplomacy to limit Japanese immigration?

Executive Order 9066

Issued in 1942, this order authorized the forced removal and incarceration of over 110,000 Japanese Americans during WWII. Guiding Question: How did wartime fear override civil liberties?

Fred Korematsu and Mitsuye Endo

Korematsu challenged incarceration and lost, while Endo won a ruling that loyal citizens could not be detained, helping end the camps. Guiding Question: What contradictions did these cases reveal?

Mexican Repatriation, 1930s

During the Depression, up to one million Mexicans and Mexican Americans—including citizens—were deported or pressured to leave to reduce welfare costs and labor competition. Guiding Question: How did economic crisis fuel racialized expulsions?

The Bracero Program, 1942–1964

A U.S.–Mexico agreement allowed Mexican laborers to work temporarily in agriculture and railroads to meet wartime and postwar labor demands. Guiding Question: How did labor needs shape immigration policy?

Operation Wetback, 1954

This federal campaign used mass raids and deportations to remove undocumented Mexican workers across border states. Guiding Question: How did the U.S. alternate between recruiting and expelling Mexican labor?

Mutualistas

Mexican and Mexican American mutual-aid societies that offered legal aid, healthcare, and community support in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Guiding Question: How did communities build their own support systems under discrimination?

Jones Act, 1917

This act granted U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans but maintained U.S. colonial control, shaping migration to the mainland. Guiding Question: How did unequal citizenship drive migration?

Nuyoricans

A cultural identity describing Puerto Ricans who migrated to New York City in the mid-20th century, forming a distinct bilingual, urban community. Guiding Question: What does this show about complex forms of belonging?

Young Lords Party

A Puerto Rican activist organization founded in 1968 that fought for community control, civil rights, and anti-colonial reform in urban centers. Guiding Question: How did activism challenge racial and immigration hierarchies?

McCarran-Walter Act, 1952

This law ended explicit racial bars but kept quotas favoring Europeans and added Cold War security exclusions. Guiding Question: How did Cold War fears shape immigration?

Hart-Celler Act, 1965

This law abolished national-origins quotas and replaced them with family-based and skills-based immigration, shifting origins toward Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Guiding Question: How did civil rights and global politics reshape U.S. immigration?

Simpson-Mazzoli Act (IRCA), 1986

This law created employer sanctions for hiring undocumented workers while granting amnesty to many long-term undocumented immigrants. Guiding Question: Why mix enforcement with legalization?

IIRAIRA, 1996

This act expanded deportation grounds, increased mandatory detention, and restricted due-process protections, intensifying criminalization. Guiding Question: How did 1990s politics reshape immigration enforcement?

Model Minorities

A stereotype portraying some Asian groups as hardworking and successful, used since the 1960s to contrast them with other minorities. Guiding Question: How did this stereotype reinforce racial hierarchies?

Diversity Visa Program (“Green Card Lottery”)

Created in 1990 to increase immigration from underrepresented regions, especially Africa and Eastern Europe, through a random lottery. Guiding Question: How did the U.S. attempt to diversify immigrant origins?

Homeland Security Act, 2002

This act created the Department of Homeland Security and reorganized immigration enforcement after 9/11 around national security priorities. Guiding Question: How did 9/11 redefine immigration as security?

Secure Communities Program, 2008

This program linked local police databases with federal immigration systems to identify and deport undocumented immigrants arrested by law enforcement. Guiding Question: How did policing become tied to immigration control?

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)

Established in 2012, DACA provided temporary deportation relief and work permits to undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. Guiding Question: How did ideas of innocence and deservingness shape DACA?

Central American Minors Program (CAM)

Created in 2014, CAM allowed certain children in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to apply from their home countries for refugee or parole status. Guiding Question: How did CAM adapt refugee policy to regional violence?

Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)

A federal agency in HHS responsible for refugee resettlement, services, and care for unaccompanied migrant children. Guiding Question: How does ORR reflect the humanitarian side of immigration polic