From Open Borders to Concentration Camps

For almost one hundred years, the United States had open borders. In the beginning, there were no restrictions on who could enter; all ports of entry would allow anyone in. America had a lot of empty land at the time and was eager to settle it (and had no problem committing genocide to do so.) If an immigrant lived in the country for a certain period of time, they would automatically become a citizen (as long as they were white.)

After the Civil War, as America industrialized and urbanized, immigration increased dramatically. The first federal restriction on immigration into the United States was the Page Act of 1875. The law prohibited the entry of "undesirables," that is, any individual from Asia who was coming to perform contract labor. A fine of up to $2000 and a maximum jail sentence of up to one year on anyone who tried to bring a person from any Asian country. 

In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed, marking the birth of "illegal immigration" by restricting immigration from China, as well as prohibiting the naturalization of Chinese immigrants and setting deportation procedures for illegal immigrants. The naturalization of Chinese citizens wouldn't be permitted until 1943, when the act was repealed. This act was later extended and strengthened by the Geary Act in 1892 by requiring Chinese nationals to carry certificates indicating their legal presence in the country and setting a punishment of one year of hard labor on any immigrant found to be in the United States illegally.

The early 1900s saw a string of immigration laws that placed tighter restriction on who could immigrate to the U.S. The Immigration Act of 1903 expanded restrictions on immigration to include "anarchists, people with epilepsy, beggars, and importers of prostitutes." The Immigration Acts of 1907 and 1917 restricted immigration for certain classes of diseased or disabled people and established a literacy requirement, respectively. 

In response to increased immigration following World War I, the Immigration Act of 1924 was passed, which limited the number of immigrants allowed into the country annually with nationality quotas. Nationality quotas equaled 2% of the foreign-born individuals of that nationality in the 1890 census with a minimum quota of 100, which favored immigrants from northern and western European countries that had a longer history of migration to the U.S. These quotas caused an increase in illegal immigration, so that same year, the U.S. Border Patrol was established. At the time, many of the immigrants crossing the border from Canada and Mexico were Chinese and other Asian immigrants who had been barred from entering the country legally. 

World War II required the United States to significantly alter its immigration policies. In order to address labor shortages, the U.S. and Mexico formed the Bracero Agreement, which allowed Mexican agricultural workers to enter the US temporarily. This agreement would continue until 1964. The Displaced Persons Act was also passed, allowing up to 200,000 individuals displaced by the Nazis to immigrate to the U.S. This law was the first refugee and resettlement law in the United States. 

In 1965, the national origin quotas were finally done away with when President Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Act, replacing them with a seven-category preference system that emphasized family reunification and skilled immigrants. As a result, the majority of immigrants came from Asia and Latin America rather than western Europe. 

It was not until 1980 that the U.S. create a system for processing and admitting refugees and asylum seekers with the Refugee Act. That same year, 125,000 Cuban refugees landed in Florida seeking political asylum. Six years later, President Reagan signed the Simpson-Mazzoli Act, granting amnesty to more than three million illegal immigrants. This act also made it a crime to hire an illegal immigrant. 

After September 11, 2001, immigration, customs, and border security agencies were placed under the prevue of the Department of Homeland Security after the Homeland Security Act of 2002 was passed. This act also formed Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).  The Real ID Act of 2005 created federal standards for state-issued identification cards, placed stricter limits on immigrants seeking political asylum, and cleared the way for new border fencing to be built along the U.S.-Mexico border.

There would not be any new action regarding immigration until 2012, when President Obama signed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). DACA was an executive action that allowed immigrants who came to the U.S. as children to apply for deferred action for a two year period, subject to renewal. However, the action did not provide a pathway to citizenship. In 2013, there was a bipartisan attempt to reform immigration through the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act. The Act passed the Senate with bipartisan support, but was killed in the House by Congressional Republicans. 

Since taking office, President Trump and the Republican Party have not passed any immigration legislation. President Trump has, however, taken many executive actions. He imposed, in his words, a "Muslim ban", barring immigration from seven majority Muslim nations. He has sought to use funds appropriated for the military for the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. He attempted to end DACA, but was stopped by the courts. Finally, he imposed a "zero tolerance" policy on anyone caught illegally crossing the border, leading to the separation of thousands of children from their families.

Right now, there are detention centers set up on the southern border to hold immigrants who have been arrested at the border. Many of them are seeking political asylum, which is still legal. The conditions in these camps are horrific. Men, women, and children are kept in overcrowded cells, without access to adequate sanitation, water, or food. The Trump administration went to court to argue that the children held in these camps were not entitled to toothbrushes or soap. Twenty-four immigrants have died in ICE custody during the Trump administration. These detention centers are, without a doubt, concentration camps.

America is a nation of immigrants. America was built by immigrants. Almost every American alive today is the descendent of immigrants. Yet, at the same time, immigrants have always been scapegoated as the cause of the nation's problems. So long as President Trump and the GOP can convince voters that immigrants are a threat to the safety and prosperity of the nation, the treatment of immigrants, legal or otherwise, will get worse.