Immigration Restriction in

the United States

MOLLY MRZL AK
The US Has a History
of Excluding and
Deporting Immigrants.
Most of who aren’t white or
from the Western world.
 Deportation of unauthorized Chinese
immigrants,
immigrants, prevention
prevention of
of new
new
Asian
Asian immigrants
immigrants viewed
viewed as
as convicts,
convicts,
prostitutes,
prostitutes, and
and competition
competition for
for jobs
jobs
Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) Chinese
Chinese immigrants,
immigrants, and existing
existing
Chinese
Chinese immigrants
immigrants cannot
cannot
naturalize
naturalize

Quota
Quota system
system put
put into
into place
place where
where an
an ethnic
ethnic
Post-WWI
Post-WWI Hysteria
Hysteria The Immigration Acts of hierarchy
hierarchy isis created:
created: Asian
Asian countries
countries barred,
barred, E.
E.
End of the
the Ellis
Ellis Island era
era 1921 and 1924 and
and S.
S. European
and
European countries
and non-Africans
countries limited,
non-Africans cannot
limited, non-whites
cannot become
non-whites
become citizens
citizens

Pearl Harbor Attacks Permitted the arrest, detention

Alien Registration Act of 1940,
and internment of enemy aliens
”national security” Proclamation No. 2537
deemed to be “spying”

Post-WWII, response
response to
to the
the Bracero
Bracero
Program
Program Military-style
Military-style mass deportations of
“Operation
“Operation Wetback”
Wetback” (1954)
“Mexicans taking
taking our
our jobs”
jobs” mentality
mentality almost 1 million
million Mexicans
“It seems to me the point as to this measure … is that the time has arrived when we should
shut the door. … Thank God we have in America perhaps the largest percentage of any
country in the world of the pure, unadulterated Anglo-Saxon stock … and it is for the
preservation of that splendid stock that has characterized us that I would make this not an
asylum for the oppressed of all countries, but a country to assimilate and perfect that
splendid type of manhood.”

1924 South Carolina Governor Ellison DuRant Smith on emergency quotas

“Every reason which calls for the exclusion of the most wretched, ignorant, dirty,
diseased, and degraded people of Europe or Asia demands that the illiterate,
unclean, peonized masses moving this way from Mexico be stopped at the
border.”

1928 Texas Congressman John Box on why the quotas weren’t exclusive enough
Motives and policies
were clearly racist
before 1965.
restrictions
have
developed in
Disguises of
True Methodology
how they are
Motivations
implemented
and portrayed
National Security *Lengthy, trivial, and expensive
immigration process for single
“Law and order” immigrants looking for work

“The United States does not have

Economics a generic work visa for individuals
who wish to come to the U.S. to
-Protecting the “American
find jobs. Foreign nationals
worker”
generally need to obtain a visa at
-Saving government money a consulate abroad, based upon a
petition filed by a U.S. employer.”

*This is a main problem

Proposed Policies
Travel Bans
• So far 3 attempts
• Ban on travel/immigration from
majority Muslim countries to
combat “foreign terrorism”
• *Was implemented for a while
Border Wall
• The construction of a giant wall
that runs along the US/Mexico
border to combat migration
from Mexico and other Latinx
countries
RAISE Act
• Proposal of a merit-based
system for visa acceptance
• Visa acceptance to only
immediate family
• Would eliminate "diversity visa
lottery”
• *Immigration would drop over
50% in the next 10 years
“Seeing the President standing with the bill's sponsors at the White House
gives hope to the tens of millions of struggling Americans in stagnant jobs
or outside the labor market altogether.”

2017 Roy Beck, President of NumbersUSA on the RAISE Act

“It was done for the security of our nation, the security of our citizens, so
that people come in who aren't going to do us harm. And that's why it
was done. And it couldn't have been written any more precisely.”

2017 President Donald Trump in defense of the Travel Bans

It comes  Racism
down to:
 Ethnocentrism
 Nationalism
 Ignorance
What about
physically keeping
immigrants out?
https://youtu.be/j5l31SHTlW4
Impacts of Being Restrictive
 Loss of dignity
 Dehumanization and vilification
 Creation of animosity toward Americans with immigrant backgrounds.
 Human rights violations
 Deportations
 People risking their lives to immigrate to the US*
 Undocumented immigration
 Leads to a cycle of “cracking down” on immigration
*In the context of physical crossing of the border
Responses
are mixed.
August 2017
Politico/Morning Consult poll
(1,992 registered voters):
• “42% of voters believe
the US allows too many
low-skilled workers.”
June 2017 Gallup poll (1,009
registered voters):
• “72% of respondents say
immigrants take jobs
Americans don’t want.”
“Venezuela is angered, but émigrés are pleased”
“I’m excited that the Department of Homeland Security and the Trump
Administration has looked very hard at how to use extreme vetting to keep
Americans safe.”
Woman who campaigned for the president in Boston as part
of a group of Catholics* for Trump
“I feel lonely,” she said, walking to a bus stop on her way to work. “When my
children grow up, they will feel the pain.”
Somali-American woman
“I’m in limbo, and it’s a hellish nightmare.”
Yemeni woman waiting for her husband to come
“How many times are we meant to condemn this man? Most Yemenis are too
busy feeling bad about the American bombs that Saudi Arabia is dropping on
them to think about Trumpf’s silly ban.”
Yemeni journalist
Artist: Banksy
Sources
http://
www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/11/11/455613993/it-came-up-in-the-debate-here-are-3-things-to-know-about-ope
ration-wetback
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5l31SHTlW4
https://www.nbcnews.com/slideshow/u-s-mexico-border-now-n685936
http://www.euronews.com/2014/10/02/banksy-satirical-artwork-on-immigration-erased-after-racism-complaint
http://www.history.com/topics/u-s-immigration-before-1965
https://
www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/daca-the-1924-immigration-act-and-american-exclusion_us_59b1650ee4b0bef3378cde32
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/can-a-decades-old-immigration-proposal-pass-under-trump/537138/
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-travel-ban-speech-2017-2
http://murthydotcom.wpengine.com/worker/
https://thinkprogress.org/5-immigration-reform-proposals-that-americans-actually-support/