Transcripts For MSNBCW The Rachel Maddow Show 20170906 : vim

MSNBCW The Rachel Maddow Show September 6, 2017

With great thanks to my and for filling in last week. Thank you for being here with us. Good night from nbc news headquarters in new york. Woodrow wilson was first elected president in 1912 when he ran for reelection in 1916, one of the animating issues of that campaign was world war i which was raging in europe and which wilson promised the United States would not join in 1916 he was barely rehe electricitied and the u. S. Went into the dechaired war on germany and wilson was not only facing the typical headwinds that a president s party faces in midterm elections, but he was also roundly dehe tested for world war i and other things. In 1918, Woodrow Wilsons party got beat. The republicans getting congress, that had far reaching consequences in all sorts of ways, bullt in the house it mea a gigantic and cons kwen tall promotion for Albert Johnson. Such a generic name. Actually hard to google. There was a another congressman named Albert Johnson who had nothing to do with him. A federal judge called Albert Johnson, a famous canadian fugitive. He was a back beverage congressman from Washington State whose whole public profile had been built around the defense of the white race and the threat that nonwhite immigrants posed to white civilization in the United States. Albert johnson at home in Washington State ran a rabl rousing antiimmigrant newspaper called the home defendeder. He about being part of mob violence that chased immigrants out of the United States and into canada. He had been a or tore on that bet issue for decades but never welled any National Power until albertons Republican Party took over leadership of the congress. That is what made it possible for Albert Johnson to take real power. He became chairman of the committee on immigration and naturalization. It was his lifes dream to be in charge of something with Something Like that. He did what he could with it. Soon the house p Representatives Committee hired themselves a expert eugenics agent. Albert johnson the chairman in addition to serving in congress had become the president of the Eugenics Research Association of america and once he was chairman he brought on one of the officers from the Eugenics Research Association, hairy laughlin, to lk a expert eugenics consult and the. Two together, they got to work. In 1922, heir laughlin created this chart. You can see thats the water mark of trumen state university, theyve preserved this document on line as part of their history of eugenics project. But this is a chart that Harry Laughlin created when he was the expert eugenics agent. What this chart purports to show is the relative social inadequacy of various immigrant races in the United States. That includes feeble mindedness, crime, epilepsy, tu berk loaves, blindness, deafness, eformty and dependency and the chart ranks your likelihood of being or having any of those things based on your National Origin. Eugenics is best understood as the sued oe science that the nazis used to kill whole pop layings as this part of this defensive plan to preserve their praj ill but superior gene pool. Eugenics is most easily associate wd that it wasnt on a foreign fascination. In the 1920s we had a chief congressional eugenicist. Who was using taxpayer dollars to rank the relative feeble mindedness of american immigrant on the basis of their National Origin. Before congressman johnson made Harry Laughlin the chief chairman he made a name for himself by modelling compulsory sterile i sation laws, he wanted them to forcibly nuter people as if they were animals. Laughlin was frustrated with the inefficient way that states were going around that, he wrote model legislation, sterilize more people if their genes arent up to it. Johnson became chair of the committee in 1919. He hired this chief eugenicist for the committee in 1921. By 1922 they were publicly ranking the genetic failings of americans by their National Origin. By two years after that, 1924, they had achieved what they were aiming at. By 1924, wilson was gone, Calvin Coolidge was in and signed a antiimmigration bill. It was jauld the johnson reed immigration. It was a eugenics bill. It was a bill to protect america from a stream of alien blood. It was a bill to stop American Civilization from descending into bar barrism. That 1924 bill restricted immigration dramatically but in a specifically targeted way, it band immigration from asia countries all together, there was a asia exclusion zone. It targeted jews and i tall ians that were unpopular through a neat oe math trick. The formula that they put into law in 1924 limited immigrants based on National Origin but in a specific way. The numbers of immigrants who would be allowed in were based on the number of people of that National Origin who had made it into this country by 1890, they went all the way back to the 19th century to pick a date that decided was white enough in American History to try to bring the country back to. They used the 1890 census as their beverage mark to say if your people werent here in sufficient numbers back then, you cant come now. We want the country to look the way it did in 1890 not the way its looking swaurgty now. What is inarguable about that law is whats clear in the contemporaneous record of how it was argued. There was nothing subtle about it. It was a explicitly racist law. It was explicitly race based. There was no secret about that. It was openly the way the legislation was talked about and argued about. The senator who wrote the bill with Albert Johnson, david reed, he was quoted in the New York Times saying thanks to that bill, quote, the racial composition of america is thus made permanent. Another senator samd ill i son durant smith bank shot up on the senate floor to spell out why the johnson reed 1924 immigration bill was getting his point, the point as to this march is that the time has arrived when we need to shut the door, thank god we have a america perhaps the largest percentage of any country in the world of the pure unadulterated anglo sackson stock. It is that splended stalk that i would make this a country to assimilate and perfect that slind splendid type of manhood. Its somewhere between embarrassing and painful to think about the fact that this is less than 100 years ago, that the United States made a explicitly you generaltivity overhaul of their to make america more white, to protect the white race from these genetically inferior hordes. I mean, we can at least be thank you that the historical record on this is so clear. So there can be no mistaking thats what its about. Anybody looking at immigration policy in this country and where weve been has to know what that was all about. That that really was eugenics. In seven years well have the highest personal of americans nonnative born since the founding of the republic. And some people think well weve always had these numbers. But its not so. This is very unusual. Its a radical change. And in fact, when the numbers reached about this high in 1924, the president and congress changed the policy, and it slowed down immigration significantly. We then assimilated through the 1965 and created really the solid middle class of america with assimilated imimmigrants, and it was good for america. That 1924 change. The president and the congress changed the policy. That was good for america. That was attorney general Jeff Sessions speaking in october 2015 when he was still a senator speaking on brian batteitbart r. That was circled by right wing watch. Picked it up again today as attorney general Jeff Sessions, he was sent out by the president to make the announcement that the hundreds of thousands of people who were brought to this country by their immigrant parents when they were still kids, those hundreds of thousands of people that had been given leave by the previous administration, they are now on track for deportation. Nbc news confirming a set of talking points were trbted and advises people who have been living here under the daca program, it advises them to, quote, prepare for a departure from the United States. This affects, as youve been hearing today, directly about 800,000 people who live in the United States. By virtue of their participation in the daca program, you can generalize about this group of people to say they are people who dont have criminal records, constructively engaged in contributing to society and the military and gainful employment. Were talk about the prospects for how the Trump Administration plans to round these people up, including the key question of whether the information the kids provided to the government in order to join this program will now be used against them to find them, collar them, send them to countries they have never lived in as adults. It is not a accident that attorney general Jeff Sessions is the one that was sent out to make thisdownsment about this today t. Jeff sessions has a long adult record on this subject. He is outspoken against legal immigration, let alone illegal immigration. For years hes been a admirer of the eugenics ban of the 1920s politics. It isnt because we couldnt see it coming because of echoes in American History, i mean, Jeff Sessions has always stood for this stuff, and so has donald trump. Just in president ial politics, he started his campaign saying mexican immigrants were rapists and bringing crime. He proposed a ban on muslims coming into this country. He argued that a judge of mexicanamerican origin could not be a judge trump because hes a mexican, the judge is borne in indiana. Trump has claimed the only reason he lost the popular voeft is because millions of undocumented immigrants voted for hillary clinton. He has issued his first pardon to a sheriff who defied a court order and continued to there was a court order he need to follow on the subject of racial profiling. His Office Opened a office of crime by criminal acts committed by immigrants. Although they perform fewer crimes than done by legal immigrants. Theres a lot of talk about what will happen to the 800,000 d. R. E. A. M. Ers. In terms of people turning out in the street, risking arrest, its pretty intense. But in terms of where this came from, i mean as far as i can see, weve covered the russia stuff a lot on this show. As far as i can see, there are really only two bright throughlines for this president. In what has otherwise been a incoherent and hard to follow mish mash political ideology from him. There are only two things clear as a bell and never changing. One of them is really unprecedented, the president s strangd continued unerring saying nice things about russia. Thats weird and unprecedented. But the other threeline, the other thing that is coherent and uncertain ving is vehement and tipa think toward imimmigrants. Blaming immigrants, trying to stir up animosity and hatred toward immigrants, making them a scapegoat punishing them for sins that are not theirs. Unlike the russia one, this one about immigrants, this is not unprecedented. This one taps into a deep old throughline in this country that we have seen before. And it is a history that we used to look back on with aastonishment and shame. And you look amazing. Ly comfortable. When your vneck looks more like a uneck. Thats when you know its halfwashed. Add downy to keep your collars from stretching. Unlike detergent alone, downy conditions to smooth. And strengthen fibers. So, dont halfwash it. Downy and its done. Just turn on cars. Coms on tprice dropswant . And get realtime notifications that could help save you money. Use cars. Com and save. But he hasoke up wwork to do. In. So he took aleve. If hed taken tylenol, hed be stopping for more pills right now. Only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. Aleve. All day strong. This was 11 00 a. M. Eastern time today. Lot of people counting down to that hour today once it was clear what was coming. I want to let you know that its 11 00. We just received information, its now official. This Administration Just ended daca. No. No. Change. Change. Change. Change. Change change. [[speaking foreign language]. We are here to stay. We are here to keep fighting. We are here to celebrate, send the message to the administration, pain doesnt have a place in this country. We are going to keep fighting for our d. R. E. A. M. Ers. We are going to keep fighting with our community for justice. You can see monica perz, she works for the advocate group causea. She came to this country when she was 7 years old. Shes a daca recipient. So, this was d. C. Today, protestors gathered in front of the white house. They marched to the trump hotel in downtown d. C. In new york city people gathered in front of trump tower, 30 people were actually arrested. In denver c. , kids walked out of their high schools, and in phoenix, in knew moeks co, the university of arizona in tuck son today. Protests popped up all over, nashville, louisville, austin, line from the white house is that congress is now supposed to fix what the Administration Just did to set up for deportation. These kids who dont have criminal records, dont know any country than this one. Frankly its hard to imagine this congress having the unified will to tie its own shoes, let alone have legislation to help these kids. But its the only thing left to be done. Appreciate your time tonight. I know this is a very, very busy time. Great to be here with you. Let me just ask. Your first reaction today. You knew as well as we did that this was probably coming mid morning today. How did you hear about it and how do you feel . Rachel since the day of the election, donald trump ran a campaign committing to end the daca program. And the anxiety and fear in our community has been rising. Today is a difficult day for us. My brother jonathan is one of the close to one Million People that have benefited from the daca program that has allowed him to live without the fear to be deported, to go back to school, to help my family out financially because hes been able to work. And like him, thousands of young people have received the difficult news today. We are outraged at this decision, rachel. And i want to be clear about something. Sessions mentioned in his speech today that this was dual about daca not being constitutional. What i want to be clear about is this was not a legal decision. This was a political decision. And the reality is that the president did not have to make this decision. The september 5th decline wadlia arbitrary deadline. If he wanted to do the right thing as he said in multiple interviews that he had heart for immigrant youth, if he did have the heart for immigrant youth, he did not have to make the deciding, he could have kept the program in place. But today, we know that thousands of undocumented young people and many, many allies are joining us in ensuring that we do all that we can to protect young people. I grew up undocumented, rachel and i came out as undocumented and afraid over 10 years ago. Were not going back into the shadows. Thats the united dream we have. We heard news today about a legal fight in the future about various entities and even states considering bringing this matter into the courts and trying to stop it that way. Beyond whatever may happen in terms of a litigation strategy, and i guess thats yet to be understood, do you expect that there will be a direct action resistance to this as well. That theres going to be direct Community Resistance to try to stop deportations in terms of a physical way, in terms of protest and confrontation . If theres anything we showed today is that not only undocumented young people in our communities but many of our allies, faith leaders, educators, Business Leaders that have come out from the democratic side, from the republican side. We have the majority of the country standing in favor of the daca program, standing in favor of undocumented young people. You showed the images of the walkout in new mexico, kochlt, what is very clear to us is we will continue to lead a direction action movement. I remember having this conversation with you a few years ago with you. It was undocumented young people who came out as undocumented and unafraid, share our stores, led sit ins, direct action, theres how we pushed president obamaa to do the right thing. We are very clear, rachel that this is this decision about terminating daca, it was a priority led by White Supremacists in the administration, folks like miller and Jeff Sessions. This is one of their policy priorities of folks that want to drive people like me and my family and my brother out of this country. For us, the intention of the administration and those that are advising the president is clear, which is why we are ready with allies to continue to organize and to push for a permanent solution that will protect young people from deportation. Could fender of y could founder. How daca came about in the first place, i absolutely remember having knows conversations with you, watching the power of direct action to make this happen. That will be the most important tool to keep it in place now. Keep us apprised. Some unexpected news. Turns out one of the congressional committees involving the russia scandal has now subpoenae

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