JAEH Archive / Vol. 38, No. 1, Fall 2018

Table of Contents
ARTICLES
By: Jane Hong
Abstract
This article examines the Philippine Commonwealth Government’s role in the success of the 1946 Luce-Celler Act’s provisions making Filipina/os eligible for US citizenship. It argues that Philippine officials at Manila adopted the legislative cause as part of their broader preparations for Philippine independence. They recognized that Filipina/o American communities would be vital to the state-building projects that followed independence, particularly through the remittances they sent back to the islands. Through this support of naturalization rights, Manila officials sought to inculcate in Filipina/o Americans a sense of responsibility to the islands that transcended formal citizenship. A centering of Manila’s role in the Washington-based naturalization campaign reveals Philippine officials’ instrumental understanding of the US citizenship bill as a means to achieve their own national goals. More broadly, it foregrounds decolonization and the dismantling of formal empire as important levers of US exclusion repeal toward Asian peoples.
By: Lauren D. Catterson
Abstract
Drawing on a case file created on an immigrant inspector accused of sexual misconduct by an alien prostitute facing deportation in Detroit, this article traces the thorough investigation the US Immigration Service pursued when a serious allegation was made against one of its own. It presents the twists and turns of the investigation, reading transcripts of testimonies and internal correspondence between Detroit, Montréal, and Washington both along and against the grain. It argues that the case sheds critical light on how the Immigration Service understood respectable masculinity and the proper exercise of authority in the early 1920s. Due to the nature of their work, especially cases involving alleged “immoral” women and prostitutes, immigrant inspectors were supposed to embody the ideals of respectable middle-class masculinity, including order, moderation, and self-restraint. Improper sexual relations was a serious charge that challenged not only the reputation of the immigrant inspector, but also the Immigration Service more broadly.
By: Matthew Guariglia
Abstract
Between the spring of 1920 and early 1921, the Assistant Secretary of Labor, Progressive-turned-bureaucrat Louis Freeland Post, refused to sign the warrants that would have been used to deport almost three thousand alleged immigrant radicals detained as a result of the Palmer Raids. Although this action has long been remembered as a triumph of US civil liberties, this article argues that Post’s objections to the deportations were grounded in his concern with the growing capabilities of mechanized bureaucracy and the tendency of these managerial technologies to discourage informed adjudication. Rather than opposing laws that would allow for the deportation of political radicals, Post vocally protested the “sign on the dotted line” style of governance he was expected to enact. As a result of his inaction, participants at every level of the emerging gate-keeping and immigration system objected to Post’s inability to let the deportation “machine” run.
REVIEWS
By: Luis Sáenz de Viguera Erkiaga
By: Juan David Rubio Restrepo
By: Erin Stewart Mauldin
By: Hannah Noel
By: Rochelle Outlaw
By: Matthew M. Babcock
By: Gregory C. Ference
By: John J. Dwyer
By: Jaime R. Aguila
By: Aleen J. Ratzlaff
By: Ana K. Soltero López
By: Andrew McGregor
By: Danielle Phillips-Cunningham
By: John Radzilowski
By: Benjamin James Waddell
By: Denise I. Bossy
By: Donald Weber
By: Katherine S. Carper
By: Joe Merton