Managing and Manufacturing Crisis

This chapter traces the origins of American refugee policy. Twentieth-century refugee policy provides a powerful example of how presidents have played a leading role in determining which noncitizens should be allowed to enter the United States, and it reflects the dynamism and creativity of executive governance. In the service of foreign affairs and humanitarianism, presidents of this era transformed bureaucratic tools meant to be case management devices, such as the parole power, into instruments for remaking the immigration system by their own lights. Perhaps not surprisingly, the specter of emergency frequently has propelled these presidential initiatives. Wartime labor shortages and sudden refugee crises have given rise to vivid examples of executive unilateralism. But much of the historical use of the parole power fits uncomfortably into an emergency framework: the statutory grant hardly looks like a delegation of emergency authority. The President’s influence over immigration instead has deeper roots. His role has extended far beyond responding rapidly in emergency contexts to exploiting seemingly limited powers to serve an administration’s ongoing foreign and domestic policy objectives.