While politicians, law enforcement officials and citizens of every background stand divided over a recent Arizona immigration law designed to secure the state’s borders from illegal immigrants, a Texas Tech expert on immigration and border history says that the law is no different than the Repatriation Act of the 1930s or Operation Wetback of the 1950s.

Miguel Levario, an assistant professor of history, says that even since the days of the Gold Rush when Mexican-American residents of California were required to carry ID cards, the Arizona law is just the latest in a series of laws and events targeted specifically at Mexican-Americans....