This article examines how U.S. and Mexican policies in the 1920s aimed at preventing and regulating Asian, South, and Eastern European immigration, shaped migrant smuggling strategies. By tracing the journeys of Chinese, Italians, and Jews to the United States, the article explores the construction of immigration regulations and methods to circumvent them. Focusing on transit migration, I show how U.S. immigration quotas and Mexican controls spurred the smuggling business and enabled corruption in Mexican immigration offices. The article underscores the role of transnational communities, family networks, and migrant contacts in financing and facilitating unauthorized migration through Mexico, at times using stopovers in Central America. This analysis illustrates how racialized immigration surveillance redirected migration routes and fostered businesses that evaded or enforced immigration controls in Mexico, shedding light on the factors shaping U.S.-Mexican borderland migration patterns.
Abraham Trejo Terreros (Thu,) studied this question.