A little history before they arrive.
Let’s take a look at our history when it comes to immigration and maybe we can make some sense of what the talking heads on the national news are saying. They obviously don’t know their history. If they did, they would hesitate to lay blame on President Trump for all of our current immigration woes.
The first immigrants to come to the United States arrived from Europe during the Colonial period. Many were merchants looking to trade and barter or settlers in search of religious toleration. When they reached North America, also known as the New World, they encountered groups of Indians who welcomed them. Other groups of immigrants arrived involuntarily. English convicts were sent over as they were not wanted in their own country and, beginning in 1619, African slaves were forcefully transported over as part of the slave trade. Slaves, without rights, were commonly wanted for cheap labor but convicts were a nuisance to the Colonies. The act of dumping English convicts led to the first passage of immigration enforcement legislation.
The Colonies fought against the English Parliamentary Law that allowed criminals to be sent over and passed their own laws against that practice. Ironically these laws were passed by recent descendants of criminals that had been sent over previously. With the creation of the United States, there was much debate over who were the “founding fathers”. At the time the population was a combination of Europeans of all different nations and languages, Native Americans and African slaves. However, neither Native Americans nor African Slaves were even considered citizens. It was a question of whether the United States was a country of one specific group; White, Anglo-Saxon and Protestant men and women or one that welcomed newcomers from different countries, different religions and who spoke different languages. Difference of opinion on this point created the first political party, the Federalists. The Federalist Party was fearful of French immigrants influenced by the French Revolution. They feared them coming to the United States and causing a political disturbance.
Their fear convinced Congress to pass a stricter Naturalization law in 1795. Immigrants were required to be a resident for 2 to 5 years to be considered a citizen. In 1798, Federalists took power and changed the law to 14 years of residence and additionally passed the Alien Enemies Act, Friends Act and the Alien Sedition Act signed into law by John Adams. These laws allowed the President to deport any immigrant who he believed posed a threat to national security. In 1800, the new Democratic Party under Thomas Jefferson, took power and eliminated the Alien and Sedition Acts deeming them as unconstitutional and as violations of the First and Tenth Amendment. Furthermore the Jefferson administration moved the citizenship requirement back to five years of permanent residence (where it is today). During the 19th century a huge wave of Europeans immigrated to the United States. Several of the first European immigrants were Irish and German. The potato famine in Ireland and the loss of land from the British pushed the Irish to immigrate to other countries. Likewise, Germany was under severe economic depression and religious intolerance that forced many Catholics to leave. Immigrants chose the United States for several reasons but two factors played a major role. First, rapid industrialization increased the need for cheap labor. Second, the United States was beginning to claim land from the Spanish and native people in the western half of the US. Many people feared this massive number of immigrants coming into our country.
In a report from the Congressional Select Committee in July 1838 congressional members thought the increased immigration rate was a threat to the “peace and tranquility of our citizens” and classified immigrants as “paupers, vagrants, and malefactors…sent hither at the expense of foreign governments to relieve them from the burden of their maintenance”. The anti-immigrant fears led to organized groups against European immigrants such as Order of the Star Spangled Banner and the Know Nothing Party. In 1875 Congress passed an exclusion law banning prostitutes and convicts from entering the United States. Between 1860 and 1915 another wave of European immigrants entered the United States. Many came from Russia, Austria and Italy and a large portion of this new group were Jewish.
Congress now decided that immigrants should be required to pass a medical exam and have no criminal record in order to immigrate to the United States. The 1891 Act barred people having any contagious diseases or history of crime. In 1903, people in the United States were also fearful of European radicals entering the country and so the government added anarchists and subversives to the 1891 Act. Fear was so widespread that Congress and President Theodore Roosevelt decided to establish the Dillingham Commission to report the effects of immigration on the country. The Commission recommended that the United States no longer accept immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe and furthermore all immigrants were to pass a literacy test.
In 1917, under the Wilson administration (Democrat), Congress passed the first comprehensive immigration act which included a literacy test requirement. In 1924 the National Origins Act was passed putting a quota system on the number of immigrants who entered the United States. The law effectively stopped any more large flows of European immigration. The Chinese also started immigrating to the United States in the 1800’s after a population explosion and a food shortage in China. When Chinese immigrants could be used for cheap labor they were instantly recruited (transcontinental RR) but the second an economic shift took place in the United States, immigrants were given the cold shoulder.Initially, United States businesses recruited Chinese men to work as day laborers. The idea was that they would come and work temporarily, save money and return back to their families in China. California in particular was supportive of Chinese immigration and lured a lot of immigrants to settle in the western half of the country.
However, priorities shifted when gold was discovered in California in 1848. California passed laws that banned Chinese from mining. After the Civil War the Chinese were recruited again to build levees and the railroad. When all the projects were complete the Chinese did not return to their country because there weren’t any economic opportunities for them there. The welcoming of Chinese immigrants stopped abruptly as fear grew that they were taking over jobs and were a threat to society. The Chinese had now virtually taken over the fishing industry in California. In 1882 the first of three Chinese Exclusion Acts was passed, The statute suspended Chinese immigration for ten years and declared the Chinese as ineligible for citizenship. The act was renewed in 1892 for another ten years, and in 1902 Chinese immigration was made permanently illegal. The legislation proved very effective, and the Chinese population in the United States sharply declined. It was not until 1943 that China and the United States became allies during World War II and the exclusion laws were repealed.
After the Mexican War in 1849 the United States claimed the territory that now includes California, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and parts of Colorado, Utah and Nevada. The Mexicans in these areas had an option to return to Mexico or stay living in what was now considered the United States. Most did not return and the United States did not enforce any border laws. Between 1900 and 1930, Mexican immigration into the United States rose dramatically as cheap U.S. labor was once again needed. Employers recruited Mexicans to work in agriculture after Chinese and Japanese immigrants were excluded from working in the United States. However Mexican workers were at a great disadvantage as they had no working rights. Anytime they organized a strike against abuse from employers they were simply deported. In the 1930’s the United States suffered from the Great Depression, and the first campaign against Mexican immigration began. Border patrol and police officers sent hundreds of thousands of people back to Mexico, some of whom were citizens of the United States.
Once again during World War II there was a labor shortage and immigrants were needed to fill the gap. However, the country was at war and so, the government now formed the House Committee on Un-American Activities – commonly referred to as the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) It was formed in 1938 and known as the Dies Committee for Rep. Martin Dies, who chaired it until 1944. The committee investigated a variety of “activities,” including those of German-American Nazis during World War II. The Committee soon focused on Communism, beginning with an investigation into Communists in the Federal Theatre Project in 1938. A significant step for the committee was its investigation of the charges of espionage brought against Alger Hiss (accused of being a Soviet spy during WWII) in 1948. This investigation ultimately resulted in Hiss’s trial and conviction for perjury, and convinced many of the usefulness of congressional committees for uncovering Communist subversion. The committee became even more famous for its investigation into the Hollywood film industry. In October 1947, the Committee began to subpoena screenwriters, directors, and other movie industry professionals to testify about their known or suspected membership in the Communist Party, association with its members, or support of its beliefs. It was at these testimonies that what became known as “the $64,000 question” was asked: “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party of the United States?”
Among the first film industry witnesses subpoenaed by the Committee were ten who decided not to cooperate. These men, who became known as the “Hollywood Ten”, cited the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech and free assembly, which they believed legally protected them from being required to answer the Committee’s questions. This tactic failed, and the ten were sentenced to prison for contempt of Congress. Two of the ten were sentenced to six months, the rest to a year. As the war continued, the continuing need for workers increased. So, in 1942 the “Bracero” program was created. Temporary workers were brought in mainly from Mexico but also Barbados, the Bahamas, Canada and Jamaica to work in agriculture. Working conditions were awful for immigrants. They were paid very little and their children were not allowed to attend schools.
Now in the same year, 1942, over 127,000 United States citizens were imprisoned during World War II. Their crime? Being of Japanese ancestry. So while we are importing immigrant labor, we are sending US citizen to prison camps. Despite the lack of any concrete evidence, Japanese Americans were suspected of remaining loyal to their ancestral land. Anti-Japanese paranoia increased because of a large Japanese presence on the West Coast. In the event of a Japanese invasion of the American mainland, Japanese Americans were feared as a security risk. President Roosevelt signed an executive order in February 1942 ordering the relocation of all Americans of Japanese ancestry to concentration camps in the interior of the United States. Evacuation orders were posted in Japanese-American communities giving instructions on how to comply with the executive order. Many families sold their homes, their stores, and most of their assets. They could not be certain their homes and businesses would still be there upon their return. Because of the mad rush to sell, properties and inventories were often sold for pennies on the dollar. After being forced from their communities, Japanese families made these military style barracks their homes. Until the camps were completed, many of the evacuees were held in temporary centers, such as stables at local racetracks.
Almost two-thirds of the people were Japanese Americans born in the United States. It made no difference that many had never even been to Japan. Even Japanese-American veterans of World War I were forced to leave their homes. Ten camps were finally completed in remote areas of seven western states. Most of the ten relocation camps were built in arid and semi-arid areas where life would have been harsh under even ideal conditions. The camps were often too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer. The food was mass produced army-style grub and the people knew that if they tried to flee, armed sentries who stood watch around the clock, would shoot them. One of the people being held, Fred Korematsu, decided to test the government relocation action in the courts. In Korematsu vs. the United States, the Supreme Court justified the executive order as a wartime necessity. When John F. Kennedy was elected President he realized the need to reform the immigration laws. Kennedy proposed a bill that created a system for allowing immigrants into the country based on family ties and special skills called the Immigration and Nationality Act also known as the Hart-Cellar Act. President Johnson signed the bill into law.
The new system had a major effect on countries in the Western hemisphere, especially Mexico. The 1965 Act allowed large masses of immigrants from Asia and Mexico to now enter the US. At the end of the Cold War anti-immigrant sentiments began again, specifically in California. The state suffered a prolonged recession in which many people were left without jobs. This lead to a large anti-immigrant movement since California had the largest immigrant population. In 1994 California passed Proposition 187 which banned undocumented children from attending public schools and denied them public health services.
So, based on our history, how is it that the national media can say that President Trump’s position on illegal immigration “Is not America, that it is not who we are?”