The Walls Within

A history of the battles over US immigrants’ rights since 1965—and how these conflicts reshaped access to education, employment, civil liberties, and more

The 1965 Hart-Celler Act transformed the American immigration system by abolishing national quotas in favor of a seemingly egalitarian approach. But subsequent demographic shifts resulted in a backlash over the social contract and the rights of citizens versus noncitizens. In The Walls Within, Sarah Coleman explores those political clashes, focusing not on attempts to stop immigration at the border, but on efforts to limit immigrants’ rights within the United States through domestic policy. Drawing on new materials from the Carter, Reagan, and Clinton administrations, and immigration and civil rights organizations, Coleman exposes how the politics of immigration control has undermined the idea of citizenship for all.

Coleman shows that immigration politics was not just about building or tearing down walls, but about employer sanctions, access to schools, welfare, and the role of local authorities in implementing policies. In the years after 1965, a rising restrictionist movement sought to marginalize immigrants in realms like public education and the labor market. Yet throughout the 1970s and 1980s, restrictionists faced countervailing forces committed to an expansive notion of immigrants’ rights. In the 1990s, with national politics gridlocked, anti-immigrant groups turned to statehouses to enact their agenda. Achieving strength at the local level, conservatives supporting immigration restriction actually acquired more influence under the Clinton presidency than even during the so-called Reagan revolution, resulting in dire consequences for millions of immigrants.

Revealing the roots behind much of today’s nativist sentiment, The Walls Within examines debates about who is entitled to the American dream, and how such dreams can be subverted for those already calling the country home.

"Coleman provides valuable historical perspective on how the politics of immigration control has resulted in dire consequences for millions of immigrants and transformed the US into a country in which the benefits of citizenship are denied to a significant population living legally within its borders. . . . Recommended."

"The complex thicket of political divisions over immigration policy, whose origins in the late twentieth century Coleman so ably analyzes, remain largely intact. For those eager to advance the cause of immigrant rights, or for anyone who wants to understand the historical roots of the current political landscape, The Walls Within should be required reading."---Ruth Milkman, Dissent

"Immigrants’ struggles to live and flourish in the United States aren’t only about the border, Sarah Coleman demonstrates in this comprehensive examination of immigration politics since 1965."---Elizabeth Palmer, The Christian Century

"Winner of the Frances Richardson Keller-Sierra Prize, Western Association of Women Historians"

"Winner of the Theodore Saloutos Book Award, Immigration and Ethnic History Society"

"The Walls Within is a significant and ambitious book. Bringing new evidence and a fresh perspective to important questions, Coleman tackles the development of immigrant rights over four decades and across four broad policy areas. The result is a major intervention into our understanding of immigrant rights post-1965."—Cybelle Fox, author of Three Worlds of Relief

"The Walls Within is an important read for anyone wanting a better understanding of how we got to where we are, and how much it resembles where we have been. It's a timely and thoughtful retelling of aspects of the American story that too few of us know."—Cecilia Muñoz, New America

"In this timely and well-researched book, Coleman provides valuable historical perspective on the quest by US immigrants and their families for crucial education, labor, welfare, and civil rights while also capturing the intense nativist reaction on the American right. The Walls Within illuminates a half century of battles waged over immigrants not only in Washington but also in schools, workplaces, and courthouses nationwide."—Daniel Tichenor, University of Oregon