Commentary: The political history of locking up immigrants in the US
Three years into Donald Trump's presidency, the United States government imprisons more migrants than ever before. Given the president's vicious rhetoric, this isn't a surprise. But it's also not inevitable.
Sixty-five years ago, racism was widespread, and yet the Eisenhower administration moved aggressively toward abolishing immigration prisons. That past offers important lessons for the future of U.S. immigration policy.
For decades starting in the late 19th century, the federal government operated immigration prisons where migrants were detained for days, months or even years as immigration officials decided whether they would
