Oct 27, 2025
Mexihcatl Education (facebook)
The term “illegal alien” became common after the Immigration Act of 1924, a law made by white supremacists and eugenicists to keep America “white.” Lawmakers like Albert Johnson and Madison Grant called Asians and Mexicans “racially inferior.” The law restricted those groups and favored northern Europeans. By the 1930s, “illegal alien” targeted Mexican laborers, while white visa overstayers were rarely labeled that. It became a tool to criminalize and dehumanize Mexicans.
photo: Smithsonian
