Trump’s mass deportations and imprisonment of illegal immigrants (and any unfortunates who “mistakenly” get caught up in his overzealous deportation processes) feels unprecedented. Or, to be more precise,feel unprecedented in my lifetime.
They may be new to me, but all it took was. little bit of reading for me to realize that mass deportations, chaotic processes, “mistakes” and unlawful immigration related imprisonments are not unprecedented for the US.
- Mid 1800s – 50,000 Irish immigrants expelled from Massachusetts and NY mainly on the basis of being poor, Irish (considered non-white at the time) and Catholic.
- Late 1800s – Banned all immigration from Asia with the Chinese Exclusion Act
- Early 1900s – During the Red Scare the US government monitored labor union leaders and political dissidents, passing the Sedition Act of 1918 which made it illegal to criticize the US government during WWI. “Radicals” from Eastern Europe, Russia and Italy were rounded up and deported.
- During the Great Depression Mexicans were blamed for taking jobs from US citizens (sound familiar?). 350k-1.8 Million were deported including many who were pressured to self-deport.
- In the mid 1950s “Operation Wetback” claimed to have deported 1 Million Mexicans. These claims have been called exaggerated (others report 80K-300K). The operation nonetheless spread fear and panic among Mexicans in the US once again pressuring them to self-deport.
So the US has a track record of deporting immigrants based on criteria including: race/skin color, poverty, national origin, racism, fear mongering and “job theft”. Our government officials used threats of imprisonment, deportation and police intimidation to drive voluntary deportation as well as discourage incoming immigration.
Unprecedented? Not hardly.