The 1929 law that turned undocumented entry into a crime

Too often, discussions of immigration policy focus on recent events while ignoring the past policies that led the country to where it is today.
That’s especially true when undocumented immigrants are characterized as criminals—often merely on the basis of their legal immigration status. This rhetoric isn’t new—it has long been used to justify immigration crackdowns. But the framing of unauthorized migration as illegal does have an origin point: a little-known law in 1929.