Risking Immeasurable Harm

Benjamin C. Montoya is an associate professor of history at Schreiner University. He is the author of A Diplomatic History of U.S. Immigration during the 20th Century: Policy, Law, and National Identity and a coeditor of Beyond 1917: The United States and the Global Legacies of the Great War.

"Risking Immeasurable Harm draws on significant research in both US and Mexican archives to provide original analysis of an early and little-known episode in the history of immigration as an issue in the relationship between the two countries. . . . For historians of US foreign policy, this book also provides a fascinating early case study of an executive branch effort to avoid having constraints placed by Congress on its ability to conduct foreign relations."-Halbert Jones, Hispanic American Historical Review "Montoya has written an elegant study of the deep historical roots of immigration policy and the challenges of asymmetric diplomatic engagement. His ability to weave together U.S. and Mexican diplomatic sources is exemplary. This analysis will surely be enlightening for students, scholars, and policymakers alike."-Aaron W. Navarro, Southwestern Historical Quarterly "Taking an expansive view of immigration policies and practices beyond immigration law, this book is a valuable contribution to specialists interested in the history of immigration into the United States. It shows the complexity of the internal debates in the United States over immigration policy, as well as the role of Mexican diplomats and agents in these debates."-Jurgen Buchenau, Pacific Historical Review “In his rich and nuanced study Montoya examines immigration both as a transnational phenomenon and-critically-as a diplomatic issue between states. Rigorously researched, this timely history shows that immigration policy is best addressed not with walls but through diplomacy.”-Julia F. Irwin, author of Making the World Safe: The American Red Cross and a Nation’s Humanitarian Awakening “This carefully researched and elegantly crafted book provides timely lessons on the importance of building and sustaining bilateral diplomatic relationships across the Mexico-U.S. border. Montoya’s new analysis of early twentieth-century legislative practices reminds us that marginalized immigrants have always been central to the discourses and practices of state sovereignty and nation formation.”-Mark Overmyer-VelÁzquez, editor of Beyond la Frontera: The History of Mexico-U.S. Migration “Timely and pathbreaking. . . . With a focus on diplomacy and politics from the mid-1920s to the early 1930s, Risking Immeasurable Harm sheds new light on U.S.-Mexican diplomatic developments as they relate to controversies over quotas, racism, sovereignty, and immigration restriction. This important book reveals how and why diplomacy factored centrally in the failure of congressional attempts to restrict Mexican migration, even as the United States implemented draconian cuts to overall immigration.”-Christopher McKnight Nichols, author of Promise and Peril: America at the Dawn of a Global Age

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. The Basis for the Quota Drive against Mexico: Winter 1924–Fall 1927    2. Singling Out Mexico for Restriction: Winter 1927–19283. International Pressure against the U.S. Effort to Restrict Mexican Immigration: Spring 19284. The Advantages, Disadvantages, Risks, and Rewards of Immigration Restriction: Fall 19285. The U.S. Senate Passes a Quota on Mexico: Winter 1929–Spring 19306. Administrative Restriction, Repatriation, and the Demise of the Quota Effort: Summer 1930–Winter 1932ConclusionEpilogueNotesBibliographyIndex