Dr. S. Deborah Kang

Border Patrol now targeting legal immigrants for 'carry your papers' law Border Patrol in southern Arizona cited more than 100 people for not carrying their immigration documents in 2025 as part of Trump administration efforts to revive decades-old immigration laws.

Border Patrol now targeting legal immigrants for ‘carry your papers’ law in southern Arizona

azcir.org/news/2026/03...

***Hybrid Book Launch***

Hidden Histories of Unauthorized Migrations from Europe to the United States (UIP 2025)

WHEN: Thursday, March 26, 2026
4:00 - 5:30pm

WHERE: Taliaferro Hall, 2110 (The Berlin Room) or over Zoom.

REGISTER: go.umd.edu/hiddenhistories

Graphic from Scholars Strategy Network listing five experts available to discuss DHS funding and ICE. Features headshots of Felicia Arriaga (CUNY Baruch, expertise in immigration and crimmigration), Matthew Boaz (University of Kentucky, expertise in criminal law and immigration law), S. Deborah Kang (University of Virginia, expertise in immigration law enforcement), Charis Kubrin (UC Irvine, expertise in neighborhood correlates of crime), and William D. Lopez (University of Michigan, expertise in impacts of deportations on communities). Background shows the U.S. Capitol building. Scholars Strategy Network logo appears in top right corner with website www.scholars.org

📢 As Congress debates funding for DHS, proposed changes could place new constraints on how ICE operates. For reporters covering what these policy changes could mean for #immigration enforcement, the following experts are available to comment. ⤵️

🔗 Connect: scholars.org/features/exp...

Border Fiction Made Real: How Search and Seizure Laws Degrade on the 100-Mile Border Zone Created by policymakers in the 1940s, the border zone extends 100 miles inland from the nation’s land and sea boundaries and houses nearly two-thirds of the U.S. population. It's also where the 4th am...

There was a time when immigration officers were required to have a warrant before pursuing immigrants & when reformers tried in vain to check the excesses of the Border Patrol. In light of events in MN, will reform of ICE & CBP finally be possible?

www.pbssocal.org/shows/artbou...

Professor S. Deborah Kang discusses her book, "The INS on the Line: Making Immigration Law on the US-Mexico Border, 1917-1954"

Border Patrol has always been racist & violent. But something most people don't know is that the Border Patrol makes law. They make up ad hoc rules that are then eventually adopted as the OFFICIAL rules. @kangborderlaw.bsky.social

macmillan.yale.edu/stories/prof...

Celebrating Immprof Books & Book Chapters of 2025 It's nearly the end of the year and a good time to celebrate the wonderful things that immigration law professors published this year. Here are some of the books published by immprofs in 2025: * St...

Delighted and grateful that our book--Hidden Histories of Unauthorized Migrations from Europe to the United States--has received this mention from the ImmProf Blog! immprof.com/celebrating-... @dbattisti.bsky.social @carlygoodman.bsky.social

In 1934, a group of undocumented Russian refugees gained legal status in the U.S.—during the Great Depression. How did that happen?

MiSC scholar Deborah Kang ( @kangborderlaw.bsky.social ) explores this case in "Hidden Histories of Unauthorized Migrations from Europe to the United States." 👇 🧵

Creating a “Mass Production Technique”: Anti-Mexican Racism and the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 by S. Deborah Kang New archival research shines a light on the anti-Mexican animus that motivated the authors and agents of the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 and reveals that racism was a feature, rathe...

***New article by IEHS member @kangborderlaw.bsky.social ***

“Creating a ‘Mass Production Technique’: Anti-Mexican Racism and the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952,” Journal of American Constitutional History 3, no. 3 (2025): 545-613.

jach.law.wisc.edu/anti-mexican...

my takeaway from this letter is that glenn youngkin, rector sheridan and their flunkies on the board are deeply dishonest people who are engaged, with the trump administration, in a mob-style shakedown against the university of virginia

We have this fabulous edited volume on hidden histories of unauthorized European immigration to the US, and this afternoon/evening I'll be sharing about my chapter on the Irish. These histories show that illegalization is a CHOICE. Tune in to learn more.

Please do NOT miss out on this very informative event hosted by the @ihrc-umn.bsky.social on the hidden stories of European migrants to the US.

Some of MiSC's very own scholars will be participating.

It starts today, at 5pm EST. There's still time to register!

cla.umn.edu/ihrc/news-ev...

Reliable, transparent information about country conditions has become harder to access — yet it remains essential for fair asylum decisions and informed migration policy.

👇🧵

Please join us this Wednesday at 5pm (ET) for a conversation with the authors of Hidden Histories of Unauthorized Migrations from Europe to the United States. Register for the webinar here: umn.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

@ihrc-umn.bsky.social @dbattisti.bsky.social @carlygoodman.bsky.social

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Hidden Histories of Unauthorized Migrations from Europe to the United States. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the web... European migrants are often depicted as the nation’s iconic legal immigrants, yet Europeans did enter and remain in the US without proper authorization. In this webinar, our experts will tell the stor...

***A week from today***

The IHRC invites you to the Hidden Histories of Unauthorized Migrations from Europe to the United States webinar on Wednesday, November 12 from 4:00 to 5:15 CST.

Register at z.umn.edu/HiddenHistories.

Also CBP is accustomed to “innovating”— making up their own procedures—that many times eventually become law. Meaning, CBP actually *makes* law. @kangborderlaw.bsky.social

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Hidden Histories of Unauthorized Migrations from Europe to the United States. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the web... European migrants are often depicted as the nation’s iconic legal immigrants, yet Europeans did enter and remain in the US without proper authorization. In this webinar, our experts will tell the stor...

Join us Nov 12 for Hidden Histories and learn from our panel of experts about about European immigrants who entered the US without proper authorization. More info at z.umn.edu/HiddenHistories @carlygoodman.bsky.social @kangborderlaw.bsky.social @illinoispress.bsky.social @vliz.be @iehs.bsky.social

Bill Melugin @BillMelugin_ BREAKING: Per four senior DHS & Trump admin sources, a mass removal of ICE leadership around the country is underway, with up to 12 ICE field office chiefs being removed & reassigned in an effort to increase deportation numbers. I'm told the move is spearheaded by Corey Lewandowski, and a handful of the ICE Chiefs will likely be replaced by Border Patrol & CBP officials, some of whom will be hand-picked by aggressive & controversial Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino. I'm told some of the ICE leadership removed from their positions include the ICE Field Office Directors in: - Los Angeles - Phoenix - Philadelphia - Denver - El Paso - San Diego - Seattle/Portland - New Orleans Border Patrol officials taking over ICE leadership positions would be extremely significant, as Border Patrol and ICE do different things, and I've done numerous ride-alongs/embeds with both.

Generally speaking, ICE typically conducts very targeted operations, largely going after criminal illegal aliens or those with deportation orders, but almost always knowing who they are targeting for arrest, often conducting surveillance to learn their schedules before and waiting hours before arresting them if needed. Border Patrol, under Trump 2.0, while sometimes doing their own targeted operations, has been extremely aggressive and has been at the forefront of some of the most controversial immigration enforcement operations we've seen so far, carrying out roving patrols in Los Angeles, Chicago, etc, often at Home Depot, car washes, flea markets etc, leading to a handful of federal judges around the country issuing injunctions against them. A majority of the viral videos you see online are Border Patrol agents, including the use of a Trojan horse style Penske moving truck at a Los Angeles Home Depot, an operation organized by Bovino. ICE often gets blamed for what Border Patrol does, as the media and activists often cannot tell the difference between federal agents, and everyone is called "ICE". I'm told there are growing concerns about the political and PR fallout associated with some of the roving patrols Border Patrol is conducting as lawsuits continue to stack up and mid-terms approach next year.

I'm told there is significant friction within different wings of DHS and the administration, with Border Czar Tom Homan & ICE Director Todd Lyons preferring to prioritize targeting criminal aliens & the "worst of the worst" or those with deportation orders, while DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Corey Lewandowski, and BP Commander Bovino prefer to use aggressive tactics to arrest anyone in the US illegally, including but not limited to criminals, to ramp up deportation numbers and achieve President Trump's promises of mass deportations. I am hearing from both sides of this friction. One senior DHS official tells me: "ICE started with the worst of the worst, knowing every target they are hitting, but since Border Patrol started in LA in June, we've (DHS) lost our focus, going too hard, too fast, with limited prioritization. It's getting numbers, but at what cost?". Border Patrol agents I've talked to defend their tactics, with one telling me: "What did everyone think mass deportations meant? Only the worst? Tom Homan has said it himself, anyone in the US illegally is on the table."

It's quite a situation, as both sides of this are on the same team, with the same end goals, but different perspectives on how to get there. Another DHS official confirmed the personnel changes to me on deep background, adding that the moves are based on performance and doing what is needed to achieve the best results. Official statement to @FoxNews via @TriciaOhio : "While we have no personnel changes to announce at this time, the Trump Administration remains laser focused on delivering results and removing violent criminal illegal aliens from this country." 7:57 PM · Oct 27, 2025 · 29.6K Views

🚨BIG changes happening -- ICE leadership is being purged tonight. The old guard, which prioritized targeted enforcement operations aimed at people with criminal records, is being replaced with Border Patrol and Gregory Bovino's "Midway Blitz" style.

Think things are bad now? It'll get worse.

Life changing trip to New York where I discovered sourdough bagels & I felt like I met my tribe: law profs & attorneys set on researching & writing to change how judges decide. They green-lit my next book & I'll be forever grateful to them for the inspiration and support.

🚨There is a hidden issue in US immigration detention: the treatment of pregnant, postpartum, and nursing women. 🚨

Despite ICE's own policies against detaining these individuals, reports of medical neglect, miscarriages, and nutritional deprivation have been documented.

With Big Tech, the Border Is Everywhere - Public Books Given that the border is already mystified as a technology, new forms of computerized border technologies doubly fetishize the configurations of people, materials, force, and law that compose borderin...

🗣️ New from MiSC scholar Jenna Loyd for @publicbooks.bsky.social.

The article challenges the idea that "the border" is just a line on a map. Instead, it's a technology—a tool that mixes law, territory, bureaucracy & policing to control human mobility.

🧵 ⤵️

www.publicbooks.org/with-big-tec...

Supreme Court Lifts Restrictions on L.A. Immigration Stops

There was a time in the past when these stops were illegal. I've written about this here: www.pbssocal.org/shows/artbou... and here: medium.com/@sdkang2020/... and here: global.oup.com/academic/pro...

See also Lindsay Nash's: michiganlawreview.org/journal/inve...

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/u...

Thank you Ben!

Journal of American Constitutional History The Journal of American Constitutional History is a peer-reviewed web-based journal publishing high-quality scholarship on U.S. constitutional history. Our editorial board includes over 60 leading…

The Summer 2025 issue of the Journal of American Constitutional History is now live! In this issue: articles by Gerard N. Magliocca, S. Deborah Kang (@kangborderlaw.bsky.social), Sam Erman and Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, and a book review by Katherine Shaw. Read it here: buff.ly/6a9ecwr.

🗃️ Important new research on anti-Mexican racism and immigration law here 👇🏽

Thank you so much for reading and citing! I'm glad you found it helpful!

Creating a “Mass Production Technique”: Anti-Mexican Racism and the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 by S. Deborah Kang New archival research shines a light on the anti-Mexican animus that motivated the authors and agents of the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 and reveals that racism was a feature, rathe...

Delighted to see this piece in print: jach.law.wisc.edu/anti-mexican...

Many thanks to the Journal of American Constitutional History for creating an online space for publishing legal historical work, esp. since making this piece accessible to scholars and advocates was my number one priority.

Thank you Anna for posting--I've been off of social media for a while and I just saw this today.