Immigration Policies in the U.S. - A Historical timeline (VIA my old friend Steve Cesares)
For those who TL:DR
· “Illegal Immigrant” is a racist dog whistle. Use it at your own peril in this group.
· Immigration policy is heavily influenced by corporations who want cheap labor. They do it to lower costs and undermine unions.
· Immigration policy is heavily influenced by racism. If it wasn’t racist, naturalization would be easier and not take years or decades to complete.
· 40% of migration is done via airports and seaports. 80% of all immigration happens via a city center. Building a wall in rural wastelands does not stop 80% of immigration.
· Conservatives have to understand that their policies (mass deportations, denial of citizenship applications, restricted worker program) makes the immigration situation worse. Your ideas are bad and they don’t work. Also, when democrats compromise with you and do what you ask, you move the goal posts. Obama and Biden adopted GOP immigration policy and the GOP wanted something worse.
We have been having this discussion for over 50 years. We are done dealing with willful ignorance or obvious racism.
Post-Civil War – The Federal Government takes it over because the states were fucking it up. We have case law where states would refuse immigrants over being Catholic, Irish or some other shitty weird reason.
Prior to WWI – Mass Deportations were common and often included citizens. Again, the purpose of mass deportations is not about illegal immigration, it’s about getting people you don’t want out of the country. The U.S. created Concentration Camps and used them on the Indigenous. California was “White Washed” at the turn of the last century as the federal government deported Mexican Americans who were citizens for three generations to make way for Easterners who were tired of seeing “Non White Americans”.
During WWI – Mass deportations stops because we needed the labor for the war effort
Great Depression – Mass deportations start up again because of economic hardship. While white farmers from the plains and midwest suffered from discrimination when they tried to find work in California, I need to point out that Mexicans were largely evicted from the state to make room for them.
WWII – Mass deportations stops once again because we needed the labor. However, a formalized system known as the Bracero system would stay in place until the mid-60s, allowing easy access to worker visas and unlimited renewals. Undocumented workers would be under 1% of the US population during this time frame
1960s – The Bracero system is shut down, largely due to state pressure (Texas) who wanted to stop immigrants from working in their state. Texas started a college worker program to have college athletes work the field. It was a dismal failure because the students didn’t want to work in those conditions.
Immigration stays in this limbo state. While it allows worker visas and renewals, naturalization is made purposefully rare and difficult to obtain. Many people come here wanting to be citizens, but they are denied and delayed for years, if not decades.
1980s – Reagan offers legal sanctuary and pathways to naturalization for millions of immigrants who have worked for years in the country with no real way to become citizens. However, the formal process to be naturalized is not reformed or expanded. Reagan basically did a onetime executive order but never did anything to fix a system that causes undocumented workers to exist.
1990s – At this time, there is an estimate 3 million immigrants working in the US with varying degrees of documentation. Some are able to get visas others work under the table. In 1994, the GOP Congress and Clinton sign a bill changing immigration policy to worker visas. Basically, you could get a worker visa, work for two years, get a two-year extension, and then had to leave. No more work and no ways to become a citizen.
Before this change, an average of about 3 million undocumented workers existed in the US due to a lack of a naturalization process that was effect (The right way people keep talking about). After this law changes, the number of undocumented workers in the use explodes. Depending on the year and economic situations, the number of undocumented workers varies between 10 and 15 million people (3% of the US population).
Obama Administration – As an olive branch to the GOP, the democratic party adopts immigration policies that the GOP wants. This was done during the Great Recession and was seen as a way to cater to white voters who felt threatened by undocumented workers. This started in 2010 and continues to this day.
2016 FTG (Fuck that Guy: My name for Trump) – He removes the political asylum provisions of immigration and shut down the immigration process entirely. He expands the camps and separates families. This is all done to make immigration painful and dangerous to all involved. Children in cages become the norm and is not undone until he loses in 2020. We still have 10,000 children unaccounted for. Most people they have been adopted by American families for religious conversion.
2025 – Now we are in 2025 and we have raids in workplaces. We could solve immigration with paperwork and naturalization, but the GOP wants to do it with guns and soldiers. We could solve immigration with policy, but the GOP wants to do it with cruelty.
Immigration has been made difficult the same way an abuser makes things difficult for a family to be healthy. It’s not about being “Legal” it’s about making sure the laws allow you to beat up, rape and kill foreigners without consequence.
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