Immigration and the American Dream: “We the People” Today and Tomorrow with

The ongoing crisis at the US-Mexico border has fueled often ugly arguments about US immigration policy. The arguments are not new. Nor are their basic questions. The US has long touted itself as a land of immigrants, but repeatedly closed doors belie its boast. For its policies and practices have hardly been consistently welcoming. Almost every generation of US citizens has needed to answer questions about immigration and the American dream, about who should be allowed to become their fellow citizens, about what that process should be, and about what the policy and process mean for people, communities, and the nation itself. This presentation briefly reviews US immigration and naturalization policy and invites reflection on the history of Arizona and the nation’s response to questions of what it means to be an American and how immigrants fit into the American dream.

This event is cohosted by Friends of Florence Community Library. This is an in-person event.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Thomas J. Davis is an historian, lawyer, and professor emeritus at Arizona State University, Tempe, where he taught U.S. constitutional and legal history. He taught also as a visiting professor of law at the ASU College of Law. He received his PhD in U.S. history from Columbia University in the City of New York and his JD cum laude from the University at Buffalo School of Law in New York. He has been an AZ Humanities Public Scholar Nominee and served as Arizona’s State Scholar for the 2020-21 Voices and Votes: Democracy in America, Museum on Main St. (MoMS), Smithsonian Institution, traveling exhibition. AZ Humanities bestowed on him its 2021 Founder’s Community Partner Award, recognizing his work “to further public humanities through sustained collaboration and exemplary community outreach.”