America's History: Legacy in the making

Samenvatting

When the post-modern social theory of rationalism came under attack after World War II for reducing human interactions to units of administrative efficiency, immigration was raised on the political agenda because immigrants are by definition not a part of the administrative machinery that governs the modernized countries to which immigrants sought entry. This book complicates the picture by bringing to light Congressional debate in the early part of the 20th century that is full of examples of perspectives on the American experience as a tradition of civil liberty that defended a grounding of the consciences of all persons in liberty and economic equality. In the immediate post World War II period, the transformation of the executive branch Immigration and Nationality Service into a model of ... administrative efficiency that defines U.S. immigration until the present day was incompatible with this grounding American principle. How can a country founded on universal human liberty that at its historical founding was most alert to the evils of tyranny betray the ideals of freedom and justice with which just decades prior it had crowned the immigrant experience ? How can public debate in Congress take the political position that rights and liberties are now reserved to citizens, endorsing oppression and human suffering on a vast scale even if this political position is not reflective of the vast majority? In this thought-provoking study, the author examines approximately 20,000 pages of Congressional hearings ranging from the second decade of the 20th century to the present time, to demonstrate how the crisis of political authority that formed the political landscape of World War II shaped the sensibilities of successive Congresses. Deluded by magnanimity towards the less fortunate, Congress lacked the perspicacity to respond with the required equity to perceived social disturbances. This study provides valid and useful insights into why the prohibitions against anarchists, fascists, and communists in the inter-war period failed to translate into the few and far in between ethical concerns over immigration. It explains why collaborations between the government and the mob in the Kennedy area played themselves out in a politics of lawlessness, secretive law enforcement, and government by political interests. This portrait of Congress illustrates how legislators can disrupt history, and how history can return to haunt them, with important lessons to be learned for our intellectual and political lives. MARIA KRISTOFER, Ph.D., is a legal scholar with an interest in American legal history, Constitutional Law, the first Amendment, and issues related to national security and immigration. She holds a doctorate in political philosophy from New York University and was a Visiting Fellow at the Graduate School of Arts and Science at Harvard University. She has contributed drafting of legislation and policy research to several offices in the United States Con­gress and has assisted with the representation of clients in immi­gration court and several federal courts of appeals.