We all come from somewhere else. None of us are actually from here. When asked what we are or where we are from the standard answer for most of us is "I'm an American". However, this is problematic as none of us are actually from here. Most Americans have only been in the United States for no more than a few generations back. Even American Indians are not really from here as they immigrated here from Asia thousands of years ago. Granted, they were here long before anyone else, however, they did arrive from somewhere else.The United States is extraordinarily unique among the nations of the world in that we are an amalgamation of people from through out the world. We are white, black, and brown. We are European, African, Latino, Asian and Hispanic. We are Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Deist, Atheist and Agnostic. Save for Canada, really no other country in the world can claim this reality. All of these people, all who look vastly different, all who have vastly different backgrounds live here and all honestly claim their identity as an American. Our present views and problems with immigration are not unique. Despite what we would sometimes like to believe or think that we know, we have always been fearful of immigrants and immigration from the very beginning of our nation. Who we fear and why we fear them changes but our reactions to them never really have.
The Poor, Uneducated, and Wrong Party
As our nation was just getting started in the late 1700's there were a couple of very vexing issues beginning to percolate. The first issue was the growing number of immigrants coming into the new nation. These immigrants tended to come here looking for a new start or at the very least a better life than where they had come from. This usually meant they were poor and uneducated. Often they came from countries we were suspicious or leery of as well. The second problem was the development of political parties (despite Washington's caution against creating political parties for fear that political parties would become more interested in their own well being, or the demise of the other party, over the well being of the nation as a whole). The Federalists, led by President John Adams and current Speaker of the House Alexander Hamilton, favored strong relations with England, an industrialized economy and a strong federal government. The Democratic-Republicans, led by principal author of the Declaration of Independence and former Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, favored strong relations with France, and agricultural based economy and states rights. These three entities; immigrants, the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans would collide in an epic clash over immigration and the power of the federal government.
Hamilton, and to a lesser degree, Adams, were fearful of the underclass and uneducated ascending to power. They believed, again more Hamilton than Adams, that there were certain people who possessed the ability and intellect to lead a nation and its people. These able people, coincidentally, happened to be the wealthy, educated class. As the poor, uneducated immigrant population grew in the fledgling United States, Hamilton became increasingly uneasy. Especially when he and other Federalists began to realize that these immigrants tended to support the Democratic-Republicans far more than they did Federalists.
Fearful of the nation being overrun by a bunch of poor, uneducated immigrants as well as losing political power, Hamilton and the Federalists wrote and passed the Alien and Sedition Acts. This was a bundle of bills that gave the president and the federal government broad sweeping powers with the goal of keeping America for "Americans" and the Federalists in power. It allowed the president to deport immigrants he deemed a "threat" to the nation with little or no evidence, it outlawed anyone from speaking, or writing anything negative against the president with the penalty being imprisonment. Although Adams signed the Acts into law, they were little used, however, it did stir a massive backlash and set the once mighty Federalist Party on the path to ruin.
Thomas Jefferson, who was Adams Vice-President at the time, was so angered by these laws that he publicly began to denounce the laws as an affront to democracy and liberty. Angered by the acts as well was the powerful Federalist leader and architect of the United States Constitution, James Madison. Madison was so incensed by this move that he publicly denounced and disavowed himself from the Federalist Party, becoming a Democratic-Republican. Such a move would be akin to Ronald Reagan- were he still alive- denouncing the Republican Party and joining the Democratic Party in protest over Republican legislation. Madison denounced the Alien and Sedition Acts as being unconstitutional. Both Madison and Jefferson asserted that states should refuse to enforce such offensive laws.
Eventually the Alien and Sedition Acts were repealed but Adams and the Federalists never recovered from this moment. Adams would be a one term president, losing to his then Vice-President Thomas Jefferson and the Federalists would never again return to the White House.
We Know Nothing Except That We Hate The Irish..And The Chinese...And The...
With the dawn of the 19th Century came Manifest Destiny fueling a furious drive westward attracting settlers of all types many of whom come from the latest wave of immigration. Ireland was experiencing its Potato Famine causing many Irish to flee their homeland for in search of a better life in America. The massive influx of Irish immigrants caused many in the U.S. to become fearful and resentful of these Irish immigrants. After all they were lazy, poor, stupid, drunks, violent and, for many, worst of all they were Catholic.
In a backlash to these vile Irish immigrants, some schools began to refuse Irish students admission or teach that Catholicism was unAmerican. Cemeteries began refusing to allow Irish Catholics to be buried in their cemeteries. This discrimination forced Irish Catholics to open their own schools as well as establish their own cemeteries. Landlords began to refuse to rent to Irish immigrants and some employers refused to hire Irish immigrants. Desperate for employment, Irish immigrants would take any job that they could find. More often than not, these jobs were hard, manual labor jobs that paid very little. However, since there were many of these jobs available, this led many to believe that the damned Irish were going to destroy America and drag it down to their level.
This fear led to the establishment of political organizations and parties such as the Star Spangled Banner Party which eventually became the Know-Nothing-Party, whose sole purpose was to preserve America for Americans and to stop the flow of unwanted immigrants who were thought to be destroying American culture and society.
By the late 1800's, as always happens after the first generation of immigrants has passed, the Irish were more or less accepted as "real Americans" so a new target was found. The Chinese. And best of all, they were so much easier to pick out than were the Irish. Following the Civil War the number of Chinese immigrants has steadily increased on the west coast. They were the worst- at least since the Irish. They were lazy, they were dirty, they were all drug addicts,and they were dumb. They didn't even know English! At least the drunken Irish did!
Like the Irish, the Chinese were willing to take any job they could find,a s finding anyone to hire them was very difficult. As a result, they began to be employed in large numbers in mining and on the railroads. Both hard, dirty, backbreaking work for little pay. Seeing large numbers of Chinese working in these industries and almost all of them speaking little if any English led many to become concerned that the very fabric of America and American culture was under assault. This led to the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 which effectively stopped ALL immigration from China and this remained in effect until 1943.
Bring Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses Yearning To Breath Free. Whooops, Except You, Not You
With the dawn of the 20th Century came new realities and old problems for the United States. The US was a burgeoning world economic, political and military power. Immigration continued to increase but we now kinda liked the Irish. They had given us St. Patrick's Day and introduced us to a host of potato recipes. What wasn't to like? Sure there was still that pesky issue of Catholicism, but that, for the most part could be overlooked. Now the Italians who were arriving in increasing numbers as we entered the 1900's that were feared and disliked. After all, they were dirty, lazy, Catholic, and dumb. Like the Chinese, they didn't speak any English either! The Irish always had that going for them at least.
Like the Irish, the Chinese and other large immigrant groups that had arrived earlier, the Italians found themselves to be the target of harsh discrimination and disdain. It was hard for them to find decent places to live as well as employment. With the end of WWI, things were about to become even more difficult for the Italians and other eastern European immigrants.
As the 1920's began there was an alarming uptick in immigration to the United States as hundreds of thousands of immigrants from across Europe- especially Southeastern Europe- fled to the United States, escaping a war ravaged Europe. This sudden, massive surge of immigrants convinced Americans that, for the first time ever, we would need sweeping immigration laws.
The Immigration Quota Act of 1921 restricted immigration into the US annually to 3% of immigrants from each country based on 1910 immigration numbers. This greatly reduced the number of immigrants coming into the country- a win- but it heavily favored the "bad" immigrants as there were A LOT more Italians and other Southeastern Europeans coming into the US in 1910 than there were of the "good" immigrants who were arriving from Northwestern Europe. To rectify this problem, a new immigration bill was passed. The Immigration Quota Act of 1924 reduced the percentage to 2% immigration annually from each nation but now used the immigration numbers from 1890, which favored the "good" immigrants.
The Bolshevik Communist victory in Russia and the increasing possibility of similar Communist revolutions taking place around Eastern and Southern Europe following WWI scared the bejesus out of many Americans who were increasingly finding themselves surrounded by immigrants from Southeastern Europe. In response to these fears, Attorney General Mitchell Palmer began a series of purges in the country to rid the nation of these radical, communist, immigrant insurgents. The raids known as Palmer Raids saw a number of "front" organizations raided and the "radical" immigrants rounded up and deported back to their country without cause or due process. Obvious "radical" organizations such as the Sons of Italy were frequent targets.
Capitalizing on the wave of xenophobia the KKK had a resurrection of sorts during the 1920's, becoming a fairly "acceptable" organization. During the first half of the 1920's, the KKK became an equal opportunity hate organization as they opposed far more than former slaves trying to become fully free people. Oh no, the KKK now opposed everyone they saw as "unAmerican" or threats to the American way of life and culture. Essentially this was everyone who was not a WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant). Elected officials now proudly proclaimed on campaign literature that they were card carrying members of the KKK. In 1925, 30,000 Klansmen and women marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C. In my hometown of Arvada, Colorado the Klan was especially active because of the large number of Italian Catholic immigrants in the area. Thankfully, by the end of the' 20's the power and influence of the Klan had waned.
Where Do We Go Now
The United States is not unique in its fear of and discrimination against immigrants. Pretty much every other country in the world that attracts immigrants for some reason or another experiences similar issues and feelings. And in pretty much every other country, once the immigrants have been there for a generation, the feelings against them tend to dissipate. Just like in the United States. What makes the U.S. so unique, is that we are the only nation in the world comprised wholly of immigrants.
We are all aware of the issues surrounding immigration today. Some of the issues are very real and some of the issues are very imagined. I think all of us agree that the immigration system in the U.S. is very flawed if not completely broken and needs attention. What is the solution? I'm not sure. I can say that the solution is somewhere between Open Borders and No Immigration.
What we should remember is that we've been here before. Immigrants have always been looked at with the side-eye and suspicion. And they have always integrated into American society, in fact American society has expanded thanks to immigrants in the way of new foods, new holidays, and new traditions. Take heart America, this present "crisis" will pass, they always do. We will survive, we always have. America adapts. We have to, we're a nation of immigrants.
