It’s November already, can you believe it? In addition to colder temperatures and the end of daylight savings times (hello, darkness!), it’s also time for the most “American” of holidays—Thanksgiving. While the history of Thanksgiving is much more complicated than what is commonly taught in schools, it’s nevertheless an opportune time to reflect on our presence in this country as immigrants, refugees, and, yes, colonizers, and also reflect on how we have historically treated other immigrants and refugees. To that end, we are looking back at five major acts and cases in US history that have shaped and influenced US immigration law and policy.
Read moreThe Washington Post: “Fans of Trump’s view on immigration should remember how figures like him targeted their ancestors”
President Trump’s recent comments calling Haiti, El Salvador, and African nations “shithole countries,” has been met with strong reactions. House Speaker Paul Ryan, reflecting upon the hardships that Irish immigrants like his ancestors had once faced, called the president’s choice of language “very unfortunate" and "unhelpful” and said “the Irish were really looked down upon back in those days.” Ryan’s reference to the Irish offers a teachable moment about US immigration history, explains Hidetaka Hirota, a professor of American history at the City University of New York-City College and author of Expelling the Poor: Atlantic Seaboard States and the Nineteenth-Century Origins of American Immigration Policy. It was the backlash in large part against poor Irish immigrants that led to the first US immigration policies and law, Hirota says.
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