This course explores the metamorphosis of the US into not just a country of immigrants, but a country of intense nativism, suspicion and hostility to outsiders of certain stripes. We highlight how stakeholders in the American political project have used means both democratic and supra-democratic to impact the question of who can and cannot enter the country, pushing on one end to erect sturdier barriers to entry and on the other, to welcome migrants with more open arms.