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In the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election, immigration has taken center stage, with lawmakers advocating for varied policies to manage migrant flows. Former President Donald Trump, who is expected to be the GOP’s presidential nominee, is advocating for stringent immigration policies, including his proposal to reinstate the controversial travel ban that primarily affected Muslim-majority countries.
Straight Arrow News contributor Ruben Navarrette highlights the long-standing issue of discrimination against immigrants in the United States. Ruben argues that Trump’s policies and opinions are just another example of the pervasive racism that has woven itself into American history.
In 1924, Congress passed the Johnson-Reed Act, which is also known as the Immigration Act of 1924, crafted by Representative Albert Johnson, a Republican from Washington State, and Senator David Reed, a Republican from Pennsylvania. The law limited the number of immigrants from Southern Europe — read, Italy — and Eastern Europe — read, Russia. It also excluded outright Asians from entering the United States. Not surprisingly, the law was very popular with the Klu Klux Klan and nativist groups.
Today, the anti-immigrant bigotry, exemplified by Franklin and Cabot Lodge and Johnson and Reed, lives on in the body of former President Donald Trump. In a recent interview with the National Pulse — a right-leaning website — Trump said that recent waves of immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” Some critics said Trump’s remarks — which sounded a lot like the race-baiting rhetoric he used to win the White House in 2016 — carry the stench of white supremacy and echoed back to Adolf Hitler.
They included Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, who called Mr. Trump’s comments racist and xenophobic and said, “This kind of toxic rhetoric should have no place in our politics, period.” Unfortunately, that’s not right. Here in the United States, Trump’s racist take on immigrants does have a place in our politics, in our history, in our society. It’s been there all along — since before this region was even a country. It’s never going away. It’s baked into the DNA of this place.
