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Dissertation Information for Patrick D. Lukens Espinosa

NAME:
- Patrick D. Lukens Espinosa

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- Arizona State University (USA) (1999)

ADVISORS:
- F. Arturo Rosales

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Noel J. Stowe
- Kyle Longley

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: Mexico, Mexican Americans and the FDR administration's racial classification policy: Public policy in place of diplomacy

Abstract: In June of 1937, the FDR Administration implemented a uniform policy of classifying persons of Mexican nationality or heritage as racially "white." Roosevelt's State Department developed this policy in response to Federal Judge John Knight's decision declaring those with West Indian blood ineligible for naturalization. Because the 1924 Immigration Act prohibited the immigration of anyone ineligible for naturalization, Knight's decision had the potential to practically end immigration from Mexico. The Judge's decision was influenced by a nativist organization, the California Joint Immigration Committee, which developed the legal opinion, and convinced Knight and Naturalization Examiner John Murff to use the argument to deny the naturalization of a Mexican immigrant.

First, this work reviews relevant literature to develop models of activity amongst American nativists groups and Chicano civil rights activists. It also describes US immigration law up to 1935, and the Roosevelt Administration's Good Neighbor Policy. Second, this dissertation examines Knight's ruling, and then the policy that came as a result. It explores two conflicting models of policy making, both of which the State Department followed. The first model, the democratic theory, entails the traditional separation of powers, where Congress passes laws, the administration enforces laws, and the judiciary interprets laws. Following this model, the State Department attempted to introduce legislation into Congress to change the laws in question. This proved quite unsuccessful. The second model, the technocratic theory, puts policy making, enforcement, and judicial review in the hands of the executive. Following this model worked for the State Department, when it developed the policy which simply circumvented the judicial decision.

Finally, this work analyzes the effects of the policy. Essentially, the State Department worked to prevent Knight's decision from becoming a foreign relations disaster with Mexico. However, since the administration uniformly applied the policy to Mexican Americans as well as Mexican immigrants, it benefited the early Mexican American civil rights movement. In this period, Mexican Americans sought to be classified as "White" rather than "Mexican," or "colored" (classifications such as Hispanic and Chicano had not yet been conceived). For Mexican Americans, this policy was a major civil rights victory.


MPACT Scores for Patrick D. Lukens Espinosa

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TA = 0
calculated 2008-05-04 21:05:20

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Students under Patrick D. Lukens Espinosa

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None