This book focuses on the watershed political events of 1995-96. During this period, President Bill Clinton signed into law three pieces of legislation that have had a significant impact on the lives of immigrants: the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), the Personal Responsibility Act (PRWORA), and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA). Taken together, these laws have significantly altered the rights and responsibilities of immigrants in this country. My work argues that these two years are of particular importance for the history of U.S. i ... More

This book focuses on the watershed political events of 1995-96. During this period, President Bill Clinton signed into law three pieces of legislation that have had a significant impact on the lives of immigrants: the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), the Personal Responsibility Act (PRWORA), and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA). Taken together, these laws have significantly altered the rights and responsibilities of immigrants in this country. My work argues that these two years are of particular importance for the history of U.S. immigration. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s work on discourse and governmentality, this project analyzes the discursive strategies that created, shaped, and upheld a race-specific image of a “desirable” immigrant. My interdisciplinary critical discourse analysis is located at the intersection of linguistics, cultural studies, feminist theory, and critical race theory. This book explores the content and the social implications of the immigration discourse, drawing on extensive textual analysis of diverse sources including congressional debates, committee reports, and articles from The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Houston Chronicle. Using these sources, I argue that government debates, media discourse, and public perception were part of a larger regime of knowledge/power that continually produced and reinforced the neoliberal ideal of a responsible, self-sufficient subject. Concomitantly, my research demonstrates that despite this attempt to foreclose the terms of debate, the mid-1990s discourse on immigration was characterized by a productive tension between its underlying neoliberal assumptions and other often contradictory values and objectives.