ABSTRACT
The history of immigration law reveals how policies now have transcended racialized exclusion and paved the path to normalize discriminatory policies to criminalize, track, and diminish civil rights of Muslims as an American defense policy. Immigration law limits who gets to come into the United States and creates belonging through immigration status. In an effort to better understand how US immigration laws and policies impact Muslims, this chapter addresses the history of immigration law in the United States, Muslims and Muslim immigrants and refugees, the impact of immigration law and policies on Muslim students in higher education, and recommendations for policy and practice. Immigration law is synonymous with American defense policy, laced with hateful, discriminatory practices against the Muslim community. The intersectional experiences of Muslim college students are readily visible when Muslims are racialized as a group and viewed as forever foreigners regardless of their immigration status and/or national origin.
