By Margery HannahFrom its founding, the United States distinguished between those it welcomed, those it conquered, and those it exploited. Immigration policy, citizenship law, and racial hierarchy developed not in isolation—but in conversation with each other, reinforcing a national identity built around exclusion.
The earliest immigration laws favored free white men. But the nation already contained peoples it refused to acknowledge as citizens: enslaved Africans, Indigenous nations, and eventually, non-European immigrants. These groups weren’t all treated the same—but they were all treated as outside the vision of who the American citizen should be.
This is not just a history of movement. It is a history of gatekeeping: of who is allowed entry, who is denied belonging, and who, despite being here all along, is still forced to prove they belong.
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Chelle A. Carter-Wilson
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