Sponsored by the Institute for Detroit Studies at Marygrove College 

A continuing multi-disciplinary series of presentations and discussions 

focusing on recent scholarship about Detroit 

You are invited to attend a presentation by 

Ashley Johnson 

Ph.D. Candidate at Northwestern University 

Underground Detroit: 

Illegal Europeans, Bootlegged Liquor, and the Politics of Policing America´s Motor City, 1924-1941 

Between 1924 and 1941, Detroit received more illegal immigrants than El Paso, Tuscon, and San Diego combined. What´s more, the immigrants in question were from Southern and Eastern Europe, not Mexico. This talk will focus on undocumented immigrants on the northern border to explain how they crossed into the United States, where they lived, where they worked, and what this constant criminal activity meant for Detroit´s politics between the roaring twenties and FDR´s New Deal Era. How undocumented Europeans in Detroit affected ethnic communities, labor policies, and the rise of the US Border Patrol will also be examined. By shifting the focus of illegal immigration and immigrants to the northern border with Canada we can better understand the relationship between immigration laws and the industrial north, and what this means for major cities today. 

Date: Monday, February 11, 2013 

Time: 11:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. 

Place: Room 241 in the Liberal Arts Building 

Marygrove College 

8425 W. McNichols (Wyoming at McNichols) 

Detroit, MI 48221 

Parking is free 

Park in the lot to the east of the Liberal Arts Building