--- title: Mexican Immigration to the U.S.: History Behind a Debate description: Debates over immigration, particularly from Mexico, may seem like an inescapable part of American politics—but that wasn't always the case. canonical: https://time.com/4411701/immigration-policy-history/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-09T19:00:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-30T12:11:07.445Z article:section: History og:title: Mexican Immigration to the U.S.: History Behind a Debate og:description: Set limits on Western Hemisphere immigration only began in the 1960s og:url: https://time.com/4411701/immigration-policy-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31f15ec128997761/69889cdae20a872833a91ad7/immigration.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Mexican Border og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mexican Immigration to the U.S.: History Behind a Debate twitter:description: Set limits on Western Hemisphere immigration only began in the 1960s twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31f15ec128997761/69889cdae20a872833a91ad7/immigration.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Forgotten History Behind America's Immigration Debate > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/) and [Arpita Aneja](https://time.com/author/arpita-aneja/) Aug 9, 2016 7:00 PM UTC  A flock of sheep being imported into San Diego county from Mexico at the Tijuana border crossing, San Ysidro, California, mid 1920s. A flock of sheep being imported into San Diego county from Mexico at the Tijuana border crossing, San Ysidro, California, mid 1920s. Underwood Archives / Getty Images by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/) and [Arpita Aneja](https://time.com/author/arpita-aneja/) Aug 9, 2016 7:00 PM UTC These days, debates over [immigration](http://time.com/4389128/the-immigrants-fate-is-everyones/) may seem like an inescapable and constant part of American politics. From the [Supreme Court](http://time.com/4411814/supreme-court-obama-immigration-case/) to the [Presidential election](http://time.com/4342885/donald-trump-immigration-hispanic-evangelicals/), everyone has an opinion about how to fix a system that many perceive as broken. But as immigration historian [David Reimers](http://history.fas.nyu.edu/object/reimers) tells TIME, that’s not actually the case. The current debate over immigration–especially when it comes to [immigration from Mexico—](http://time.com/3742067/history-mexican-immigration/)is largely a product of the 20th century. “For so much of our history, immigrants just sort of came in,” says Reimers, a professor emeritus of history at NYU. “We had a very loose border with Mexico.” Here, he takes TIME through some of the major moments that created the immigration debate as we understand it today. The U.S. government only started counting immigrants in the early 19th century, and it wasn’t until the 1870s that the Supreme Court [declared](https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/92/275/case.html) that immigration was a federal concern. The border patrol traces its roots to concerns over prohibition-era liquor smuggling. [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) The system set up in the 1920s favored nationalities that were already represented in the U.S. population, because it [based annual visa quotas](https://history.state.gov/milestones/1921-1936/immigration-act) on the 1910 census. But it only pertained to the Eastern hemisphere. Changes starting in [1965](http://time.com/4050914/1965-immigration-act-pew/) eliminated some of the discrimination that had been baked into that system, and the Western hemisphere was given a limit for the first time. Although there have been changes since then, Reimers argues that system is essentially the one in place today. “We have eleven million undocumented immigrants today. They’re practically all from the Western Hemisphere,” Reimers says. “If you would have not had that quota, I would argue, most of those people would be legal.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4411701/immigration-policy-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4411701/immigration-policy-history/"},"headline":"The Forgotten History Behind America's Immigration Debate","datePublished":"2016-08-09T19:00:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-30T12:11:07.445Z","description":"Set limits on Western Hemisphere immigration only began in the 1960s","url":"https://time.com/4411701/immigration-policy-history/","keywords":["Immigration","politics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31f15ec128997761/69889cdae20a872833a91ad7/immigration.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Arpita Aneja","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/arpita-aneja/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31f15ec128997761/69889cdae20a872833a91ad7/immigration.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Mexican Border","caption":"Mexican Border","creditText":"Underwood Archives / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/immigration/","name":"Immigration"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4411701/immigration-policy-history/","name":"The Forgotten History Behind America's Immigration Debate"}}]}] ```