[Written 2018-12-22, as a FB comment in response to administration moves to deport some Vietnamese refugees.]
Given the pattern, not just changing the status of Vietnam refugees after 40 years, and not just immigration, but overall: It is time we consider a word.
A phrase, actually.
A euphemism with a dark history.
Ethnic cleansing
Ponder our stated ideals. Our history as symbolized by the Statue of Liberty.
But you think this is hyperbole? Have you learned of the Asian Exclusion Act of 1882? Extended to all of Asia-Pacific in 1921? Have you read of the Emergency Quota Act of 1921? The Johnson Immigration Act of 1924? Have you studied the history of immigration? The laws against miscegenation?
The last trace of anti-miscegenation laws was repealed May 17, 2004, in Massachusetts. California had to pass a law against forced sterilization of prisoners on September 25, 2014.
The Johnson Act of 1924 is the template of what Trump is trying to return to. This is no hyperbole. He comes out and states who he wants and who he doesn't.
And we've been here before. Hoover's Mexican Repatriation of 1932 deported hundreds of thousands of US citizens, born in this country, along with hundreds of thousands of legal residents—more citizens than residents.
The term "ethnic cleansing" applies not just to genocide, but also the forced removal of ethnic populations.
And that's what the Mexican Repatriation was. Ethnic cleansing.
In 1923, we *retroactively* reclassed naturalized citizens from India as non-white, and stripped them of their citizenship on the grounds that they had applied illegally.
If you understand one thing about our immigration policy, understand this. For the past 183 years, it has been deeply racist. It is racist to this day.
We dropped the *explicit* racial categories in 1952, replacing them with the more palatable "country" and "regional" quotas, the framework we operate under today.
But it achieved the goal in a less politically-sensitive way.
Let's say you immigrate, leaving your children behind in the care of your grandparents, and sending back money. 10 years later, you become a US citizen, and you applied for your children to come join you. They're likely adults, and you're getting older.
The date is August 1, 1997. You immigrated early 1987. You apply for F1 immigrant visas for your children.
Today, your children receive their final decision and can join you, 31 years earlier.
If you came from Mexico.
If you came from Europe, you immigrated in 2001, filed August 8, 2011, and it took only a bit over 17 years.
The visa process was only 7 years, vs 21 for Mexico.
From Mexico, if your kid was 10 and you were 30, they are now 41, 11 years older than when you came, and the wait gets longer every year. You are now 61.
Chain migration my ass.
The quotas were set, not on basis of a fair allocation between countries, or on the basis of population or need.
They were explicitly set to preserve the racial makeup of the US, as of the 1910 census. A compromise, vs the even more restrictive anti-Asian and anti-Mexican measures in place before.
This is why politicians are afraid to touch immigration. This is why it is such an issue with the current administration in power and why it has white supremacists so energized.
Do not be blind to our history. Do not ignore the risk of repeating its worst. The ethnic cleansing, the genocides, the slavery, the concentration camps.
Do not let yourself be lulled that the rule of law is automatic, or that the Constitution will protect us, if we do not protect them.
Ethnic cleansing. It's not just for obscure foreign countries.
It is US history we must not repeat.
Further reading:
US State Department: Visa Bulletin For December 2018
[Addtional references added 2019-01-28]
Not All Caucasians Are White: The Supreme Court Rejects Citizenship for Asian Indians
[Addtional references added 2019-01-28]
Not All Caucasians Are White: The Supreme Court Rejects Citizenship for Asian Indians
Massachusetts 1913 Anti-Miscegenation Law
[Additional reference added 2019-11-07]
The Supreme Court decision referenced in the "Not all Caucasians Are White" article above.
United States vs Bhagat Singh Thind
The writings of Johannes Blumenbach cited in the footnotes of the above decision. Specifically, his 1775 Treatise On the Natural Variety of Mankind".
[Additional reference added 2019-11-07]
The Supreme Court decision referenced in the "Not all Caucasians Are White" article above.
United States vs Bhagat Singh Thind
The writings of Johannes Blumenbach cited in the footnotes of the above decision. Specifically, his 1775 Treatise On the Natural Variety of Mankind".
[Added 2022-05-24]
Race, History, And Immigration Crimes, Eric S. Fish, Iowa Law Review, Volume 107, Issue 3, March 2022
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