POSTPONED: The Fantasy of Migration Control

Today's border debates focus on what the U.S. should do. But for decades, Mexico waged its own campaigns to keep its citizens home--and lost. In this revelatory study, Irvin Ibargüen uncovers a forgotten history: Mexican officials who believed they could turn migration on and off at will and the migrants who proved them wrong. From coercive crackdowns to generous incentive programs, every policy collapsed. Migrants resisted, the U.S. refused to cooperate, and Mexican authorities ultimately lost their nerve. What began as a problem to be managed became an unstoppable force. This is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand why "controlling the border" has always been a fantasy—on both sides.

Irvin Ibargüen is a historian of the Latino diaspora. He studies the movement of Latin American peoples across the Western Hemisphere and how states—sending, transit, and receiving—sought to regulate them, in part by branding them as temporary guest workers, undocumented immigrants, or refugees. His focus is on the mid-to-late 20th century, when Latino movement boomed and overwhelmed state attempts at classification and regulation. He is an Assistant Professor of History at NYU.