Transcripts For CSPAN2 Erika Lee America For Americans 20240713

Gates chinese immigration during the era 1882 1943, angel island, immigrate gateway to america and the making of asian america, history. At the Immigration History Research Center she has helped emerge immigration history with the digital humanities. She launched and oversees the National Endowment for the humanity immigration story project which works with recent immigrants and refugees to. Text, preserve and share the expenses. Her book, america for americans history of xena phobia in the United States is the subject of tonights talk. Please welcome erika lee. [applause] hi seattle, him so glad to be here. Im so glad to be back here at townhall, i was last here in 2010 before it was renovated. Am really happy to be back at a very glad that we begin this evening with the land acknowledgment i would like to repeat that land acknowledgment as i will discuss later xenophobia in xena global wheels and is tightly connected, native americans along with africanamericans were made into this countries first others in the racism and discrimination that continues to impact native americans has also been a driving force in xenophobia. I am glad that we started the evening that way. I am going to begin by reading from the book. Im going to take us back, it is winter time here, even worse in minneapolis but im going to take us back to a gorgeous summer day in july and i am in new jersey. Its a beautiful midsummer day in jersey city new jersey and i am on a boat heading to the statue of liberty in the Ellis Island Museum of immigration. How their greatgreatgrandfather came to the United States a century ago from austria. An africanamerican family recorded the video and everyone excited to see the statue of liberty, the mother asks, the kids jumped up and down and yelled yes. Im trying to share in the patriotic celebration of ellis island, place that serves as a symbol of americas welcomed immigrants but i keep thinking about another message i heard that day, the 2016 Republican National convention has just ended and the dop platform put forward by donald trump was one of pure xenophobia. Ever since launching his president ial Campaign Trump had pledged to beef up border security, being muslim immigrants, report 11 million undocumented People Living in the United States and build a massive wall along the countrys southern border with mexico. Now that he was the official republican president ial nominee, hes extreme views were repeated by a growing number of voters and politicians. Ripping on the Convention Opening scene, make America Great again, speaker after speaker had a terrifying portrait of america under siege by criminals, terrorists and gang members. Most of the statements made by trump and other Convention Speakers were either patently false or grossly misleading. But none of this seemed to matter, the crowding side the quicken loans arena went crazy for trumps message during his 75 minute speech in which he identified immigration as well as the greates greatest threatse United States and promised to restart americas immigration security he was repeatedly interrupted by cheers, plot and chance of build the wall. I cannot forget the angry tones and raise fists as a lion ellis island and walk through the museum exhibits. There we learn about earlier chapters in our antiimmigrant history but we are meant to understand them as just that. History that is over and done with. By the time visitors get to the museum gift shop, we are encouraged to banish this ugly pass from our minds and celebrate our immigrant instead. In true American Fashion we do this by buying something, there are team italy and team poland tshirts, there are no team china teachers by the way. There is no globes of the statue of liberty and the Leaning Tower of pisa. In the ellis island cafe however, they take a different inspiration offering menu items like the allamerican angus cheeseburger and the freedom burger, and tried to figure out the difference between the allamerican cheeseburger and the freedom burger, the freedom burger comes with two parties, the english cheeseburger with just one. If you live really love your freedom you must also really love your beef. Between the gift shop i ordered the vegan quinoa salad, clearly not american. Between the gift shop in the cafe it seems we can buy both immigrants and allamerican identities that coexist. But i know it is not that simp simple, i am struggling to figure out how the two americas sit together. So i did not know it then but that visit to ellis island marked one of the moments i began to write this book. Another one was the morning after the 2016 president ial election. I was teaching a class in immigration history at the university of minnesota and after a night of not so much sleeping, i throughout my lesson plan and i hunkered down with my students, many of whom are first generation refugees and immigrants. They shared with me their fears of being deported, being separated from their families, being victims of hate crimes. They had many questions for me, one was i think one that many of us were asking, how can this happen, how can voters elect an explosively racist xena phobic president ial candidate who openly called mexicans criminals and racist and who had called for complete and total shutdown of muslims to the United States another one was, how can this be happening in the United States, a socalled nation of immigrants. And in 2016 after the Civil Rights Movement, after two terms of our first africanamerican president. I had no answers for them. But i resolved myself and i started writing this book. So like any good scholar, went back to my office, went back to the library and pull down books off my shelves and made big piles. I started reading and rereading them in their common themes in the history on your feet of being xenophobia and the United States. One is that historians have been consistently explaining that antiimmigrant rises and falls with economic political and social crises with rapid demographic change with war. They say when americans feel confident we are welcoming and when we are anxious we are not. They have also treated xenophobia as an exception to americas immigrant tradition, we are told the antiimmigrant campaign had been unfortunate episodes promoted by a paranoid extremist and an otherwise welcoming nation. There is a consensus of xenophobia peaked in the 1920s, this is when we passed discriminatory National Origins quotas that closed the door to immigration to mostly southern and Eastern European immigrants, closed all the way from two immigrants from asia that lasted for 40 years. Yet with the Civil Rights Movement many scholars explained xenophobia, when it resurfaced in the last 30 years, it was a momentary blitz or an aberration in americas inevitable march towards immigrant inclusion and racial equality. This is what i taught my own students. I have written many books on immigration, and made a point of unearthing these dark and violent chapters in her immigration history but ive always ended on a positive note. I boys marked the progress that we are made in a realize the progress narrative that so many of the books that ive read and that i teach and that i havent turned hold no longer hold up. I knew that i needed to write a new history, soy started writing this book. This is what i found, this idea that the United States is a nation of immigrants, we recognize this in the wary wellknown illustration of immigrants on ships looking towards the statue of liberty, looking towards a new beginning and we know that most of her immigrant history focuses on how those immigrants did and were able to succeed and were welcome and were integrated. The idea that the nation is welcoming immigrants remains true in the last 200 years or than 80 Million People have been omitted into the country in the United States remains the Worlds Largest immigrant receiving nation even today but the United States is also a nation of xenophobia meaning that it has been ruled by an irrational fear and hatred of immigrants so that even if we have welcomed millions to our shores we have also deported more immigrants upwards of 55 million since 1882 than any other country. We have been wary of almost group of foreigners who have come to the United States from german immigrants in 18th century to irish and chinese, mexican, japanese, italians and muslims today. Across the century americans have argued that immigrants are threatening because they are poor. Because they practice a different faith, because they bring crime and disease, because they take away jobs from deserving americans because there are simply too many of them and that they dont assimilate. We have defined immigration not as a Natural Movement of people that has been happening since the beginning of Human History but rather as a crisis, the movement of people to an invasion of Hostile Forces that requires a military like response. This cartoon published in 1903, the title is the hike tied of immigration and national menace. The danger is a riffraff immigration from southern and Eastern Europe, we can tell that they are talking about southern and Eastern Europeans because he hopefully labeled on their hats like things like mafia or anarchist or criminal. We also know that this illustrator is referring to mexicans because the label there is outlawed and there is hopefully a chinese figure in their simply known or seen as a cooley hat. But these immigrants pose a threat to the United States as an end in dean waive or flood and invasion that will take over the United States, and destroy American Values like liberty and its institutions. So the u. S. Has passed discriminant quarterly immigration laws and incarcerated and expelled immigrants, it is exploited the foreignborn allowing them to be in the United States but not fully welcomed as equal americans. So why and how did this come to the, one of the answers is xenophobia is an american tradition, it dates back to our founding and has endured across the century. It is not an aberration, it does not rise and fall, it is deeply embedded in our society, our politics and our economy. It is actively promoted by special interest in pursuit of political power. Even as americans have recognized that the threats allegedly posed by immigrants were in hindsight unjustified, they have allowed xenophobia to endure, it has changed and adapted with her times targeting one threat after another, succeeding through repetition and justified as unnecessary defense of our nation. So lets go back to these roots, to do that we start with one of our Founding Fathers. In 1755 Benjamin Franklin was writing many letters to his friends and colleagues and in a series of them he warned the socalled swarthy immigrants were coming to the colonies that they were the most ignorant stupid sort of their own nation and they herded together and would soon outnumber us that her language and even our government will become precarious. Why should pennsylvania he asked become a colony of aliens. German immigrants he insisted needed to be regulated. So through the fears of one of our Founding Fathers america xenophobia became a tradition. Franklins antiimmigrant views were echoed by another great american, samuel morse known as the inventor of the telegraph, he learned that catholic immigrants were insidious invasion and an enemy to american democracy in 1841, new Technology Like his telegraph helped to spread anticatholic views across the country and this was not a simple prejudic prejudiced, this led to violence and bloodshed hitting a peak that would leave on election day for 1885 when 500 members of the antiimmigrant and anticatholic Political Party in new Political Party known as the American Party also known as the know nothing truth of the city attacking foreigners by nighttime the city sky glowed red with a flame of burning buildings in the city streets were stained with blood. From 22 100 people mostly german and Irish Catholic immigrants died as a blood he monday. Xenophobia in the mid19th century was not just about ant anticonsole us as a, a tradition that is deeply rooted in the United States as racism, it was also about political power, the new Political Party that i mentioned, the American Party spearheaded a new Political Movement using xenophobia to secure votes, antiimmigrant lawmakers and make antiimmigrant policy. Its goal was to shift the balance of power, political power in the United States, this is another reason why xena for beva indoors, as part of the american politics and part of our american democracy. The know Nothing Party argued as a cartoon from the 1850 shows that dangerous foreigners were unfit for u. S. Citizenship that they were drunk criminals, you can see the stereotypes of irish and germans, Irish Whiskey and german beer and they were literally stealing about boxing rigging elections. This is where this idea of immigrants and is deeply rooted in our political history the American Party reported 1 million members i started the talk about the importance of colonialism and xenophobia. The roots date back to this movement as well, this party, the American Party started calling themselves natives, small and native americans this was a strategy to not only distance and distinguish from the foreigners but also to distinguish themselves into rhetorically take away native roots from real native americans. So this term native american the other thing that they did, they would use symbols of what they believe to be native American Culture in terms of native American Culture and their own organizing processes and labels. So this term, id like us to think about, the next time you hear this term or use native american with a small in, i hope that you will remember both the xenophobia roots of that term as well of the ways it was used to continue to disposition native americans. The American Party was shortlived but its local policies including the dismal of irish born state workers in massachusetts, calling on the federal government to extend the resident terry the requirement of naturalization from 5 25 years, limiting Public Office to only usborn citizens or the native americans enforcing deportation in states like massachusetts help to make xenophobia and enduring part of American Democratic politics. So the other part of using this label native american is not to just denigrate others but to claim specific rights and privileges for example the only native born citizens can hold Public Office. These early examples reveal the deeper an early roots of american xenophobia tradition and bigotry in american politics. Another reason why xenophobia has endured and why is become so central in the United States is because its a form of racism. This has function alongside slavery, colonialism, conquest, segregation and White Supremacy. Africanamericans and native americans were made into this countrys first others and whenever we debated immigration, the immigrant group in question has always been measured in relationship to africanamericans and native americans. So this is how it works. Xenophobia defined certain population as racial and religious others who are inferior or dangerous or both and then it demonizes them as a group, not as individuals but as a group based on the presumptions. Again th xenophobia is not a mar under matter of prejudice or bigotry, and played a central role in americas definition of race, of citizenship, of what it means to be an american, it inspires and justifies discrimination and racial violence. And we see this as racism first being expressed in the idea that germans are swarthy or Irish Catholics are somehow not purely white and dangerous. But it is with chinese immigration that we see the first extent of zima phobic racism, chinese immigrants who first started coming in large numbers to california during the gold rush became considered a race apart, much more like africanamericans and native americans then like european immigrants. They were inferior, they took jobs away from deserving americans, you can see this in this cartoon of the 1880s called becoming man, this dehumanize characters sure of a chinese immigrant male who is monopolizing all of the work in San Francisco while white workers are striking in the background. 20 years after the blood he monday riots in louisville kentucky, another crowd of selfproclaimed americans gathered to protest against immigration but this time on the west coast and the targets were chinese. On april 518762, 5000 people gathered in San Francisco union hall for statewide meeting on chinese immigration and it was the largest gathering around the pacific coast. The threat of chinese immigration was so great in 1882 the United States Congress Passed the chinese exclusion act to single out a specific group for exclusion. Immigration from china plummeted in 1882 before the exclusion act was passed, 40000 chinese managed to come into the country, five years after the act was passed in 18 need seven only ten were allowed in. Chinese were also barred from nationalized citizenship and subjected to the countrys first larger scale detention and deportation policies as well as government required identification cards, registry and surveillance. This is a page from the officers log from the late 19th centur century, an officer who is stationed in donegal california. It is located on the Historical Society and on page after page this officer would keep photographic evidence or identification of every chinese immigrant in his vicinity and as you can see he would handwrite down age, occupation, any physical marks and also details about whether they had returned to china or reenter the United States. This is essentially our first government database on immigration. Throughout the 1880s chinese immigration was not just about keeping out new ones, it was also about expelling those who are hurting here. You here in seattle know the history well because we know that very close to where we are now in 1886 the entire chinese population of seattle was forcibly expelled. Im missing one illustration. Theres alsthis also records ate university of washington and the archive of the governor of the territory at tha the time and te is records of Chinese Americans that write to him asking for help. From tacoma and seattle chinese residents forcibly driven out from 200 to 300 now in eminent danger in seattle. We ask that you secure protection for us. This history has real meaning and deep roots here and many other communities across the United States. By the 1890s, we turn to another thread. Its not from asia but rather from italy, poland, greece, hungary. Italians, jews and all others from central and Eastern Europe are labeled inferior racists by the countrys leading scientists and politicians. Again these are not extremists. They are the elite in the universities. By 1893 they formed a group called the immigration restriction league. The goal is to end the invasion and Eastern Europe and to protect the america for americans. The leak became the countrys first antiimmigrant think tank and lobbying firm. It pushed the lawmakers to adopt new restrictions as the means of managing the racial makeup of the United States. This is one of the roots of the title of this book, america for americans. Its in the articles and writings of this particular antiimmigrant Organization Also leaving eugenicists, also president Calvin Coolidge who in 1924 signed immigration policy as a defense of america for americans. That is perhaps this document that i found in the archives dot perfectly encapsulated what america for americans really means. In the 1920s, the ku klux klan claimed to speak for all true americans by condemning the flow to take advantage of the u. S. Who published and hurt the native born outside and became an allegiance to the flags. This pamphlet was titled america for americans. Its red, white and blue cover featured a hooded klansman with an enormous american flag. The message inside was clear immigrants are a threat to the United States. White protestant americans are the only true americans and vigilance and regulations through the campaign of racial violence was the only way to protect and america for americans. By the 1920s, congress established discriminatory National Origins but kept the doors open to immigrants in northern and western europe but closed it to almost everyone else. Countries like great britain, germany, ireland, sweden received nearly 87 of the visa while countries with poland, italy, czechoslovakia and russia received just 11 . The impact was great so for a country like italy, which send in 1921 over 222,000 immigrants after the quotas were put into place, the quota for italy was only 3,845. He claimed them as a model for nazi europe. Someone sitting in the white house today, the white house Senior Adviser stephen miller. Even the refugees know not to europe couldnt find a way into the United States. In may of 1939, a group of over 900 refugees fled europe in search of safety. They had visas to enter cuba but when they arrived, cuba received entry into all but a few. They turned up next to the United States command we know from documents that survived that they were so close to the sea of miami and at nighttime they could see the lights twinkling in the sky. They sent cable after cable to president franklin ddelta marr roosevelt who refused to answer. Britain, belgium took in some of the refugees but 254 perished in the holocaust. During the Great Depression, we also target another group called to get rid of the mexicans became part of the local and federal policies nearly 20 of the entire mexican and mexicanamerican population in the United States equaling about several hundred thousand including 60 who were american citizens by birth. It captures the chaotic scene of nearly 1400 mexicans with the deportation train bound for mexico, so the deportation ran many times during the year from 1931 to 1934 or so. The caption for this photograph is very appropriate showing how xenophobia works its way into every facet of the political culture so when i look at the photograph, i see individuals wearing their best clothes trying to regain some of the respectability that bees forced deportations and repatriations have stripped from them. But the caption of the photograph written by the editor or perhaps the writer describes a scene of mexicans dressed in sombra rosewood their baskets, guitars and blankets waiting to return to the homeland that they left so many years ago with joy basically so i find it fascinating the ways in which even in the caption of this photograph, we can be sending these subliminal messages that continue to dehumanize immigrants. The next decade japaneseamericans were the target. 120,000 were forced from their homes and incarcerated in camps when the duration of the war because the United States believed they were not loyal to the United States rather, mobile to japan. Just like mexicanamericans, two thirds were american citizens just like mexicanamericans, they were de americanized but in the part of history that is at oswaldo and as the incarceration, we know that american xenophobia also spreads beyond the u. S. Borders. At the same time that the United States was incarcerating its own residents the government was also orchestrating and financing the roundabout innocent men, women and children as they defend latin america. The justification was hemispheric security so japaneseamericans were the threat to National Security and japanese Latin Americans were a threat to the hemispheric security. The goal was to make the nations southern borders safe from infiltration or the attack of the japanese enemy including japanese defended people in the americas. But the unofficial poll of historians found out later is this mass deportation was meant to provide a supply of people of the japanese ethnicity and action some have called hostage shopping that could be treated for those stranded in japan after pearl harbor. By the time the Program Ended in 1944, over 2200 men, women and children of japanese ancestry including citizens and legal permanent residents of 12 latin american countries have been apprehended, deported and incarcerated in the United States. As these glimpses of xenophobia during the Great Depression and world war ii revealed it is easily weaponize during times of change and anxiety. That is one of the main thesis in this geography, right . But one of the most important and surprising things that i discovered in writing this book is how xenophobia can survive and even flourish in times of economic depression but also economic prosperity. In times of war but also times of peace, times of racial struggle but also racial progress. Even during the Civil Rights Movement. After world war ii, the United States undergoes in American Society and population we undergo a dramatic transformation in the ways we understand race and racism. Explicit racism falls out of favor. We know that there was no scientific basis to this idea of genetic superiority that helped to pass and justify some of those egregious walls. Support for liberalizing the policy begins in the postworld war ii era and it peaks during the Civil Rights Movement. 1958 john f. Kennedy outlines the radical revision for the Immigration Reform in his book a nation of immigrants. This photograph shows posters from a group called the American Committee of the italian migration. This is a group of italian americans who were among the most active proponents for liberalizing and reforming immigration policies because as i showed an early example, they were among the most affected by those policies. And they make an argument that isnt just a civil right, but its also good for the foreignpolicy. Lawmakers agree and in october 1965, the racebased discrimination in the american law is dismantled as a part of the Civil Rights Movement and part of the 1965 immigration act. So, this photograph shows the bill signing family. Family. President Lyndon Johnson has got several dozen members of congress and their wives. They are in jersey city. They are on the Liberty Island at the foot of the statue of liberty. He flew, all of these lawmakers flew up to new jersey to sign this bill. It shows the importance of this immigration law. It also shows that lbj wanted to send this message that the new era is beginning. Thats no longer were we going to discriminate in immigration based on where someone came from but rather on what they could bring to the United States. He wanted to send the message that the u. S. Was recommitting itself to immigration. This was the thesis. This was the main understanding and framework that we had about immigration in the past 50 years. That this law is the one that ended it all and now we do not have discrimination and immigration xenophobia must also be a thing of the past. When i examined the compromises that were made and also the consequences, i found a very different story. I found that while both liberal and conservative lawmakers perfect the commitment to civil rights and racial equality when they are talking about passing the law, they also use terms of black and brown immigrants flooding into the country exacerbating the problems. They warned against altering the current racial makeup of the United States in 1965. Some even argued that do not change the immigration laws would constitute a form of reverse discrimination towards european and White American citizens. So the issue at hand is how to reframe immigration laws that were not discriminatory based on National Origin treats every country the same. The initial proposal was to preserve both but more and more lawmakers that believed that it would constitute a form of reverse discrimination towards europeans employed americans. And this message we can see the undercurrents of the supremacy continuing. This idea that the u. S. Is at its core light and europeans deserve preference over others in relation to immigration and other matters. So the law was passed was designed still to privilege the european immigration. It also did put in place restrictions that infected mexican immigrants. This included the firstever cap on immigration from the western hemisphere and other measures that ended certain types of migration particularly the program to about 4. 6 million migrants from mexico since world war ii and also those that required increased documentation for mexicans of money. In addition it affirmed the decadesold exclusion as socalled aliens afflicted with sexual deviation and prohibited them from receiving visas. This wouldnt be listed until 1990. So the new intentional regime of restriction and White Supremacy continued in immigration law, but it is harder to spot hidden under the language of nondiscrimination and professed commitment to civil rights. Much to disma the dismay of the5 immigration act debated work out of the wathe way that they had. The problem was the restrictions that gave mexico a quota of 20,000 amounted to 40 reduction from the 365 levels didnt match the economic needs. The u. S. Still relied on the mexican Migrant Workers and actively recruited them but now there was no legal way for them to enter. What resulted was undocumented immigration in essence the law created a problem where there hasnhadnt been one before. By 1986 there was an estimated 3. 2 million undocumented immigrants in the country. In addition, the european immigrants who the law make her stop would come actually stayed home and instead migrants from asia, caribbean, africa and latin america came. By the 1980s, the majority of the new immigrants were noneuropean. This mix of unintended consequences of immigrants that were not from europe and also the increase in undocumented immigration has led him to set the foundation for the debates thadebatethat we are having tod. The 1990s, xenophobia had become the a central part of american politics and culture. Conservatives come activists, writers and politicians like Samuel Huntington and Patrick Buchanan warned that they didnt as only, they drain Public Resources and would eventually displace White Americans. They didnt just target undocumented immigrants. They railed against all as well as others from the caribbean, asia and africa. If you go through Patrick Buchanans book like i did, you can see there is a growing hysteria in the wa way and what shes describing immigration is a threat so that this book is the death of the west and another one is the site of the america. Its not just warning about immigration. Its warning about the multiculturalism and about the fact white women are not having enough babies. There is a whole host of arguments, but it becomes increasingly ramped up by the time he publishes in the early 2,000 is. But theres enough of you wasnt just about race. It was also about power. The 1990s, the socalled war on illegal immigration proved to be an effective way of driving voters to the polls. Electing the concern of politicians and shifting the balance of power in the United States. Shifting the balance of power rightward on a number of issues, not just immigration but also gun control, abortion rights, welfare reform and the environment. By the end of the 20th century, this war have morphed into a term that we all recognized as border security. A campaign for border security. This was a bipartisan effort. It became a normal part of the Public Discourse and was translated into policy. One particular example is how the actual act of migration became criminalized. Beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, antiimmigrant lawmakers and strategists argued undocumented immigration was not just a violation of immigration law. It was a crime and was a serious crime and those that committed it were serious criminals who might go on to commit other serious crimes like rape and murder. They were to be harshly treated in the most cruel of ways at the border and in the United States. This is the rationale behind the socalled states Rights Initiative relating to those like the proposition 187 passed in 1994. And we just recognized the anniversary of this law. The bill sought to deny undocumented immigrants all Public Benefits including education and health services. It also deputized publicsector workers into checking the immigration status of people who were coming in seeking services especially, including Public School teachers who were supposed to check on the immigration status of their Elementary School students. Another more recently passed is that in arizona that allows the police to determine the immigration status of someone arrested were detained, a provision known as show me your papers. Proposition 187 passed but it was thrown ouwasthrown out by t. However, its impact went on to influence others like the arizona bill but also federal policy. It is under president bill clinton and congress that the u. S. Begins to militarized border. We see the increase in funding as well as the structures along the usmexico border in this slide. But we also need to look at the law. One in 1996 reaffirmed the view that undocumented immigrants were undeserving criminals. It then went on to bar them from receiving most Public Health services and benefits. That is still in effect. Another extended the category of people designated as kemal aliens by working both Violent Crimes and nonViolent Crimes such as traffic violations and shoplifting punishable by deportation. George w. Bush pushed for comprehensive Immigration Reform and he also very famously moved the gop to words a new place of population. He was part of the wing that was trying to argue that the future of the party was in a more racially diverse platform but he also increased the use of detention as a primary method of Immigration Enforcement in an attempt to detour other undocumented border crossings. This is the beginning of the zerotolerance policies that we have been hearing so much about under the trump administration. After 9 11, the Bush Administration moved all immigration border Enforcement Mechanisms out of the department of justice and into the newly created department of Homeland Security. This was a signal that immigration was not a welcoming aspect of the United States no longer about programming and integrating immigrants. But it was about protecting the United States from dangers of National Security became a code word for the racial and religious campaign targeting muslim immigrants and muslim americans. This has resulted in rising levels of violence, domestic spying and discrimination aimed at american muslims since then. Of course in politics republican candidates politicize the islamic phobia as a way to the proposals. In 2008 ibid. Was also the muslims represented more than a desperate attempt to discredit the political rival. It is a sign of how damaging the label for for for an end of muslim and one of the leaders of the socalled movement was the tv reality star donald trump. Once in office, president obama continued to enforce and extend on the policies of previous administrations. In fact, during the eight year obama administration, a Record Number of individuals were apprehended. This was obamas miscalculated efforts to compromise with republicans on immigration. They said enforce the border, secure the border first and then we will come to the table. They never came to the table, but the president removed a record high number of people. In 2012 the number was 419,000 people. A ten times the number of people deported in 1991. Obama was famously called the deep order in chief by critics. So far ive tried to answer the question of how we got here and why xenophobia has endured. Its rooted in the history and its part of american racism. It drives american politics. But the obama years point to another hard truth about xenophobia that explains why it has endured for so long. And that is xenophobia is profitable. In the 19th century, anticatholic preachers traveled around to sellout crowds. Anticatholic screens became best sellers like the bestselling books in the 1830s. The disclosures of maria monk, asics expose the beginning of the fake news i suppose, that told of the abuse and infanticide catholic conference. In the 1880s, Companies Sold goods with xenophobic messages such as the one that used to be active picking of chinese immigrants that ran laundry as a way to promote laundry deterge detergent. We have no use for them since weve got this wonderful washer. What a blessing to tired mothers. It costs so little. The fine print also assures the users that the detergent will not turn the clothing yellow. These ways of selling the xenophobia through products or three books doesnt compare at all to the profits made today running public and private immigrant detention centers. The department of Homeland Security manages the largest detention system in the world. It spends more on Immigration Enforcement and all other federal enforcement agencies combined. More than 18 billion a year. Two private companies the corporation of america also known as cbo and ge zero groups have also cashed in with a combined revenue of over 5. 3 billion. The center for American Progress and the council of relations have also found that a good network of bloggers, politicians, media personalities, news outlets and organizations have also spent upwards of 57 million promoting prejudice and hatred against islam and muslims. So, xenophobia as a part of the racism, politics and capitalism in the past and present. This explains how we got here. So by the time donald trump ran for president in 2015, calling for a great big wall and the complete and total shutdown of muslims coming to the United States, this idea that mexicans were criminals and muslims were terrorists inundating the United States had been well established and normalized in the media. Many americans expressed outrage at these racist and xenophobic positions but the hard truth is trump was just repeating a message that has been gaining traction for decades. What is new, however, is the all out assault that he has launched since entering office. This has included a wide range of policies. Increased Immigration Enforcement in the interior of the United States, the elimination of temporary protected status for many noncitizens, the travel ban on nationals from mostly muslim majority countries, the separation of families arriving at the usmexico border without documents making it nearly impossible for the asylumseekers to gain entry. The reduction of Refugee Resettlement to the United States to the lowest level since they began in 1980. In 2016 when president obama left office, he raised the cap to this is all under president ial authority, he raised the cap to 110,000 refugees. For 2020, that number is 18,000. There is the new proposal to make those ineligible for legal permanent resident status if they use Public Benefits like food stamps, Public Housing subsidies, medicaid, Early Childhood education like head start and the school lunch program. This is currently blocked in the courts, but the reports from the organization that advocates the show immigrants are removing their names from receiving these benefits. They are not signing up. They are fearful signing up for these benefits will somehow cause them to be deported. Illegal immigration, so much of the rhetoric is about the socalled bad immigrants, the undocumented ones, the criminals, terrorists. But what we have to recognize is how this has affected every category of immigrant or refugee seeking entry into the United States. Legal immigration has dropped by 70 since 2017. So, this is where we are today. Xenophobia has become increasingly embedded in american politics and life. It is imperative that we fully understand its cost. What is at stake today is not just about immigrants. Its about all of us. Its about our democracy and its about what it means to be american. Xenophobia is a threat to american democracy. It allows the will of the vocal minority to dictate policy for the majority. Public opinion polls consistently show that most americans rejected the divisive rhetoric and opposed the xenophobic policies before and after the 2016 election. A majority supported the status of those brought without documentation us children from the socalled dreamers as well as increase in what they did not support was wall. Its also imperative to point out these policies have put in place executive orde order not y congressional legislation is passed that would require witness testimony, research to compromising food. This means all of us have been kept cold or shut out of the legislative process. Xenophobia threaten National Unity and allows White Supremacy and nationalism to come to the forefront of american politics and culture. We saw this in the 1920s with the supply support for the restrictions nearly in the rallying cry that other scientists are already saying. Today antiimmigrant and white nationalists fueled violence is on the rise after the 2016 election the muslim hate crimes increased by 19 in the second half of 2018 that they had risen again by 83 . Extremist related murders have spiked, the rallies and demonstrations have grown. I dont need to remind you that weve recently recognized the one Year Anniversary of the synagogue shooting in pittsburgh or that in august of 2019, 22 were shot down at him el paso walmarts, both by individuals who expressed antisemitic and racist sentiments. With so much at stake, understanding exactly how the xenophobia works is fundamental for the american democracy and for the creation of a more humane global society. It is also important to remember that this is not a problem that will go away if we elect someone new to sit in the white house. I wrote america for americans to try to answer the question of how and why we have allowed the United States to become a nation of xenophobia. What is left unanswered for all of us today is where we reclaim and remake the United States as a true nation of immigrants or will we allow xenophobia to endure . Thank you very much. [applause] [laughter] sometimes when i talk i can see all of you in the crowd and i think ive got to write about Something Else because you feel the same way that i felt in writing this book. [laughter] my husband described the book, for any of you harry potter fans he described it as my horror crux, something i really needed to do. I wasnt planning on writing this book. But for me it felt like a necessary action, something i could do, something that only a few of us are trained to do. But it has literally made me sick. It is a horrific history. I said before, i typically write the epilogue and try to end on a hopeful note. And if youve read the book there is some hope in the epilogue, but there are many times i felt like the most appropriate ending would be to simply just drop the microphone and leave the room or it would evolved because i have some ideas about what we can do, but i am certainly not as hopeful as i would like to be or have been in the past. That being said, i think theres time for a few questions and there are microphones on the side so i would be happy to hear your ideas. Being pessimistic about the future of the subject, my parents came to america from italy in 1914, and the only way that anyone under the age of 15 ca15and have any idea what is gg on, we have to change the curriculum in grade school in this country. It just has to happen. These children are more open to new ideas now than ever before. And its not just open to the idea of climate change. What do you see any movement in our National Educational system towards letting kids know about this history of this country. Is anyone advocating for that . Absolutely they are and thank you for that question. I agree first of all we need to pay our teachers more so that they can do more. [applause] because these type of research isnt going to be part of the core curriculum so it takes extra effort on behalf of teachers to seek this out and then they adapt lesson plans to their classrooms. I would like to shout out to an organization right here in seattle and that is the japaneseamerican History Organization that is doing phenomenal work on education at all levels. I just went with one of their staffers this morning who was sharing with me some of their curriculum efforts. Clearly one of the goals is to make sure the history of the incarceration remains a central part of our teaching but its also expanded to look at immigration and racism more generally. The talent i think is the gap between many of the organizations that are creating curriculum and those that are facing so many increasing demands on their time and energy and resources. So there is great curriculum out of and getting the curriculum for teachers is much harder. Thank you for the question. I think that i am supposed to alternate. Thank you for the talk. One of the things you mentioned, you called into question the crisis but i wanted to get your thoughts on what extent given that we know what is going to result in the order of hundreds of millions of new refugees. To what extent is that language now justified and do you see that changing any of the conclusions you draw . Good question. The last sentence that i write in the book is that for so many years we have considered migration the crisis. I would like to reset the terms of the debate and name the xenophobia of the crisis. We do know that there are Record Numbers of people on the move. Every year the un comes out with a new report on migration and we are upwards of 70 Million People both internally displaced and also externally displaced. Internally manning its in response to this growing movement of people but its not just the United States. We are in a Global Crisis are the countries are either paper walls or paying other countries i hate to use this term but warehouse migrants the longest refugee camps that have served the somalia refugees there are three generations that have been living on that camp with no opportunity to leave. These policies are perhaps very politically expedient like ive made the point before. It gets the voters to the polls but in the long run, they are not going to help solve the growing situation of people on the move or climate change. So, we really need to think about these in conjunction with each other. That is probably the greatest challenge facing not just the United States, but all of us. If we continue this challenge from the perspective of xenophobia, fear and hatred, that isnt going to serve any of us. We eventually have to rely on those we consider strangers in the future. We will all be interdependent and we need much more humane and Global Solutions that i hope will come in the future. The irony that Steven Miller was one of the worst in the administration. His family escaped the holocau holocaust. Where does that come from, this paranoia we are a strong country. The gift is that so many especially the asian gifts that we hav have got had in the techy and all kinds of things, european gifts, people who came because of the holocaust and escaped europe. What is the fault in the country the people that have come into contributed so much or danger. I cant understand that kind of paranoia. That is another one of the questions that i asked as well and so it isnt just him. There are if this is very much part of the history that the group that has just recently been targeted, one of the ways they become american and ways in which they demonstrate their loyalty and patriotism is to turn on the next group. I have to transition from the antiirish chapters to the antichinese chapter where i go from bloody riots on the east coast and real discrimination irishamericans felt and experienced to then a few decades later especially if youre on the west coast they are the cities mayors, state senators, and they are at the forefront of both the racial violence to the that the chinese but also by passing laws. This is where, this is america unfortunately, but this is also part of how racism works. Needless to say it affects all of us. You cant be comfortable. And this is where knowing our history and knowing that each one of these groups had. We can laugh at some of the things the previous generations have labeled but then when we say we are using the same rhetoric and tools, they are very adept at rationalizing. They dont really want to become american. And that is where we really need to be. We need to be very honest. Thank you. I wanted to ask, you were talking at the end of your talk about hope and i was wondering if they would be willing to share any examples it might be a way of imagining what that has been like in the past. I have many champions i was always drawn to as a student reading those like mary and ten or the life of social worker jane addams, or reading the work of carl who really questioned this idea of america and promoted a much more inclusive vision of america is awaiting through literature that can be a really effective way for the students to imagine another version of the United States. The place i gain help from and now the present we live in is different than the past is in going to and participating in the immigrant rights marches that have been taking place since 2016 because when i go to these marches, i can see a broad crosssection of america. I see that it is interracial, it is cross generation, its the soccer moms and the kids from the housing projects. And i know that as a historian, that hasnt happened before on immigration issues. We know that no one spoke out against the chinese exclusion. We know no one spoke about the japanese incarceration. There were a few defenders during the Great Depression, but nothing like this mass movement. So that is what we have to keep going. But we also have to hold our politicians accountable for durable and humane solutions. My fear is that we have gone so far in the extreme some of these immigration issues that simply resetting of going back to 2016 is going to be hard given where we are now. I also firmly believe that it is not going to be enough given what we are going to be facing. So that was sort of a yeah, i am hopeful. Sorry, i tried. I just wanted to announce we only have time for the final three questions. But she will be signing in the library over here so you can ask for anything over there and at the table if you want to check in with them. I have some friends who are Chinese Canadian from vancouver. Is it an illusion that canada handles immigratio immigration s differently and we are open to learning from them . [laughter] they try to do it in a much more polite way. There is a lot of debate over whether that is the way that we want to go. Meritbased meaning asking president of trump he isnt a fan of the family reunification which is what the act put into place. He calls the chain migration and he advocates for the meritbased proposal. I think one that is more restrictive than what canada and australia have. But it is a policy that is both supporters and detractors because of the way in which its the most skilled immigrants from their home countries simply looking at immigrants as an economic function rather than a more broadbased system that would allow people that have very few skills to come and take advantage of what they have offered so many of our ancestors that came with very little and were able to make something for themselves and their children and grandchildren so it is a yes and no kind of answer. I disagree with you. I think that this book is extremely helpful because you hold a mirror to the truth and unless we are willing to look at the hard truth, we are never going to be able to get anywhere. My question is one of the things that really offended me along the way, the barbarism but at one point i found it really offensive because he could have said theres nothing wrong with being muslim and the same thing became was praised the woman said he is a good person, and i just wonder if you can comment on that kind of internalizing xenophobia but i didnt feel those kind of responses helped the situation. Right. That goes very nicely with the questions i think youve used the right to turn internalize. Of turn internalize. But the way in which we have a long history of this in the United States. Much longer than, sorry, then post 9 11. So it is easy for us to sort of openoffice playbook once again and use it after 9 11. But it also does point to the ways in which what xenophobia does is it forces us to as we demonize one group its like the only other option is to do the rubric of good immigrant and bad immigrant swept leaves us with few options to open up a more humane and inclusive rationale so we can say the opposite of the undocumented is the dreamer so without documentation that its their home. We are americans and want to stay in america. One of the challenges that i think the activists also face is they dont just want a clean dream act that would only give benefits to them. They also see a muchneeded plan for reform so that Central American asylumseekers ca could also find a pathway so that we do not diminish Refugee Resettlement so that its almost meaningless in the time of growing numbers of refugees. It is a zerosum game where we need to be able to have that conversation and call out. Its not just theirs but theres nothing wrong with being muslim. We need to take it that next step further and we need to make sure that the solutions are not going to continue to divide and hold up one group over another. That is what is going to be challenging i think. Next question. You spoke a little bit earlier about how xenophobia is very profitable and i was wondering if you could comment on a lot of what is going on in corporate america. Big headlines, like they won a big contract and as individuals who i would argue vote with the dollar, but can we do to push back as much as we can on that tax i was at google in 2017 the week that they were organizing the walkout in relationship to the muslim band so i agreed that there is a growing movement of reaction and protest and using corporate employees but also some of the leadership using the corporate base to send a message about these immigration policies. Heres the bad part now there is a growing use of Immigration Enforcement. Will also be shared with i. C. E. And others to help make it easier to track migrants whereabouts. It is part of that profitable argument that i was making but also speaking to your other point of what can we do . Not only marching in the streets promoting immigrant advocacy and the organizations who are challenging in the courts. Like the aclu and then to communicate with elected officials but also voting with our dollars everything on an everyday basis while we wait for the 2020 election to unfold. Thank you so much for these great questions. [applause] good evening. [inaudible]