Lecture on Immigration Policy in Stone Ridge

SUNY Ulster will host a lecture, "Riff Raff," Refugees and Nativism: A Century of Immigration Policy, 1917-2017, on Tuesday, February 7, at 2:45 p.m., in the College Lounge of the Stone Ridge Campus.

President Trump's executive order barring refugees and immigrants from some Muslim nations has captured headlines and spurred protests.  But this isn't the first time the United States has debated the desirability of welcoming war refugees and other immigrants to our country.  For over one hundred years fears about dangerous aliens have driven calls for immigration restriction, and laws and policies have changed in response to public opinion.  Dr. Hans Vought, a specialist on American immigration history, will present a brief overview of that history, and explain how it relates to current immigration policy.

Dr. Vought is Professor of History at SUNY Ulster whose area of expertise is American Immigration and Ethnic History. He is the author of The Bully Pulpit and the Melting Pot: American Presidents and the Immigrant published by Mercer University Press.

 This lecture is free and open to the public.