From the nineteenth century to the present, immigrants encountering the mechanisms of American bureaucracy, border control, and immigration restriction generate documents that the government collects into individual “Alien Files” (A-Files). This project uses Wax, a minimal computing system that utilizes Ruby, Jekyll, OpenSeadragon, and iiif, to build a safe and sustainable site that will present research-friendly digital collections of A-Files in addition to individual history exhibitions that dissect, interpret, and analyze the A-File’s content and evolution.