Progress Village in Tampa Florida was developed in the late 1950s in response to the dislocation of black families during the construction of Interstate-4. Furthermore this community became an opportunity for many black and more specifically, African American families, to live in a community devoid of racist attitudes and tensions rampant in inner city Tampa at the time. For over thirty years this community’s residential population was overwhelmingly (90 percent) black or African American. In the 1990s though this community would begin to experience the first wave of Latino residents and by 2000 this group would comprise over 2 percent of the population. Moreover by 2010 this community’s Latino population would soar to over 14 percent of the total population. This project is a case study of Latino migration into a small historically Black residential community. This work examines a plethora of sources ranging from newspaper articles (New York Times, Sun Sentinel, Progress Village Pioneer, etc.), scholarly articles, government data (U.S. Census), and primary research in the form of survey data and interviews from current Latino residents. All these sources are incorporated to argue that evolving federal immigration policies, shifting migration patterns, and economic factors (affordable housing and employment) all played a vital role in this recent and ongoing influx. This research adds to the existing scholarship of Latino migration in the U.S. by demonstrating how small predominantly African American communities like Progress Village are diversified by all these factors.

Early in the 1850s, a greater number of Chinese immigrants began to enter the United States, leading to a Sinophobic frenzy that would continue for decades. Throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, Americans sought to exclude the Chinese literally and figuratively. Americans employed negative imagery to demonstrate the necessity of excluding the Chinese in order to “protect" white America. The negative imagery that became Americans' common view of the “Chinaman," enabled the United States to enact discriminatory laws without compunction. In the face of intense persecution and bitter discrimination, many would simply have given up and returned to their homeland. However, the Chinese were determined not to give in to Americans' desire to exclude them. Though often viewed as a passive and stoic race, in reality the Chinese were proactive and eloquent defenders of their rights, and used two primary means of resistance to resist American exclusion: legal appeals and poetry. In response to their literal exclusion, the Chinese utilized the United States judicial system, litigating cases that either reduced the force of discriminatory laws or abolished them all together. In so doing, they managed to alter U.S. legal history, setting new precedents, and requiring judges to rule regarding the rights of non-citizens and the balance of power between state and federal governments, especially with regard to immigration policy. With regard to their figurative exclusion, the Chinese were similarly vehement in their defense. On the walls of the Angel Island barracks, where many of the Chinese immigrants were incarcerated during the Chinese exclusion acts, Chinese inmates carved and painted poetry emphasizing their sense of self-worth and their anger at the American “barbarians." The immigrants employed imagery that counteracted and even reversed the widely held negative images of the Chinese in American literature and speeches. As such, the poetry became a source of strength, a rallying cry providing the Chinese with the courage and determination to combat American prejudice. Previous studies have largely ignored the Angel Island poetry and none have brought the poetry into the discussion of the Chinese immigrants' legal battles, this thesis seeks to do both.

In the United States, some states and higher education institutions allow undocumented students to pay in-state resident tuition at public colleges and universities. Yet, when undocumented youth apply and seek to qualify for in-state tuition, they find bureaucratic procedures and rules that may discourage them from applying at all, delay, or hamper their access to higher education. The study explores how such bureaucratic requirements impose learning, compliance, and psychological burdens on undocumented youth. Building upon administrative burdens scholarship and using qualitative and quantitative analyses of admissions applications at the institutional level, undocumented students reports' of their experiences, and surveys of college admissions officers, this study examines the admissions requirements and other factors that may shape the applications of undocumented students to colleges in the states providing ISRT benefits for undocumented youth. The findings suggest that undocumented youth navigate multifaceted institutional contexts across and within states, including requirements and rules at different organizational levels and interactions with admissions officers whose discretion may facilitate or obstruct access. Variations in ISRT requirements reflect states' patterns of immigration, demographics, political (sub) cultures, narratives about the deservingness, organizational factors as well as the discretion that college personnel has in applying the requirements. Findings suggest that factors associated with residency, notarized affidavits, tax forms, and lack of clear information and guidance from college personnel substantially increase burdens when undocumented youth seek to benefit from ISRT. Certainly, when states, institutions, and admissions officers establish and shape ISRT requirements, they implicitly influence the sense of belonging and membership of undocumented applicants and mediate intergovernmental tension surrounding legalization and inclusion of this population in society. / Doctor of Philosophy / Bureaucratic requirements and rules at some public colleges and universities in the United States may hamper the ability of undocumented immigrants to apply for admission and qualify for in-state resident tuition in the states and colleges that allow it. This study explores how such bureaucratic requirements impose learning, compliance, and psychological burdens on undocumented youth and the factors associated with such burdens. The study examines admissions applications in community colleges in the states where the benefit is available, interviews and surveys with undocumented youth as well as surveys of colleges admissions officers. The findings show that the administrative burdens that undocumented youth faces result from requirements and rules that overlap at different organizational levels, several policy interpretations, the intertwine between immigration and higher education policies, perceptions of such population's deservingness, and the discretion of admissions officers. Through these requirements, states and colleges shape the sense of belonging of immigrant youth and chart their legal and social inclusion.

The Northern Triangle area made up by El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras faces a growing gang phenomenon responsible for the growth of violence and instability in the region. Many factors have contributed to the rise of gangs in the region, however, I argue that the deportation of Central American immigrants who became active gang members in the United States play a significant role in the growth of gangs. I analyze the impact of the lack of collaboration between the United States and the nations of the Northern Triangle, especially in the lack of reintegration programs and the other factors that could have influenced or spurred the escalation of gang activity such as a failed recovery process following the civil wars of the 1970s and 1980s and the state repression policies. Furthermore, I assess how the lack of collaboration between the United States and Northern Triangle region in the deportation of criminal immigrants has impacted the transnationalization of the two largest Central American gangs, Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18. Due to the lack of quantitative data on gang size and membership, I conduct my analysis utilizing various studies that have been conducted in the three nations and data regarding homicide and deportation rates. Ultimately, I find that while the U.S. deportees played an important role in altering the characteristics and nature of Central American gangs, a variety of other factors were significant in their growth. Additionally, I find their assignation as Transnational Criminal Organizations premature and inconclusive due to their weak organizational and communication structure. Finally, I question whether gangs are truly the cause of high levels of violence in each of the nations of the Northern Triangle, determining that the Central American gang phenomenon cannot be assessed or treated as a singular issue. Instead, it is imperative to acknowledge the conditions at play in each country.