Family Ties in the Age of Exclusion: A Microhistory of Immigration, Childhood, and U.S. Citizenship.

This article examines how early twentieth-century U.S. state and federal laws systematically undermined the citizenship rights and protections of children born to Asian and Latinx immigrant families, despite constitutional guarantees of birthright citizenship. Through a detailed case study of the Soto-Dhillon family, it reveals how racialized legal frameworks—such as anti-miscegenation laws, alien land laws, and immigration restrictions—used the legal status of parents as a proxy for race to deny children fundamental rights including property ownership, voting, and the right to remain in or return to the United States. The family’s forced expatriation and detention at Angel Island illustrate the intersection of xenophobic policies, bureaucratic discrimination, and imperial surveillance that shaped immigrant family experiences across U.S. and colonial borderlands. The article also highlights the critical role of women’s and family archives in preserving these histories and calls for a broader understanding of citizenship and family law that accounts for racialized exclusion and intergenerational legal harms.