Neil Foley explored how the surge in immigration since the 1970s has led to increasing levels of xenophobia resulting in anti-immigrant politics and policies, including militarization of the border, state laws curtailing rights of undocumented immigrants, mass detention and deportation, the building of a 700-mile border fence in 2006, and Donald Trump’s recent promise to build a wall along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico. With over a million US-born Latinos turning 18 years of age every year and therefore eligible to vote, many aging whites wonder if America can ever be ‘great again.’
Neil Foley, Robert and Nancy Dedman Professor of History at Southern Methodist University. He is the author of Quest for Equality: The Failed Promise of Black-Brown Solidarity and Mexicans and the Making of America, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in History in 2015.
Peter Trubowitz (@ptrubowitz), Director of the US Centre and Head of the Department of International Relations at LSE.
This event was held on 14 March 2017.