Hello and welcome to the 10th post of Talking Points! Since his declaration of his intention to build a wall between the United States and Mexico in order to curb illegal immigration to the United States, President Trump has been combative towards immigrants, both legal and illegal. For example, in his second term he has taken actions to deport an unprecedented number of immigrants, cancel the visas of international students who support Palestine, and imprison illegal immigrants accused of criminal activity, both in the United States and abroad. These actions have been justified with the claim that immigrants are engaging in widespread crime, a security issue. Such rhetoric and actions, while seemingly novel, are part of a long history of discrimination against immigrants in the United States. In this post, we will examine this history, how it relates to the experiences of immigrants today, how discrimination against immigrants is connected to conspiracy theories, and the truth of claims about immigrants. To this end, I hope to demonstrate why the current rhetoric and actions against immigrants are both inaccurate and deeply problematic.

Considering that the current territory of the United States variously was under the control of the British, French, and Spanish Empires, it is not surprising that immigration has been a dominant force in the population of America. In the 1840s, as a response to the Great Famine, many Irish immigrated. This was followed by Italians, especially from Southern Italy and Sicily, who immigrated beginning in the 1880s, as a result of widespread poverty. Furthermore, beginning in the early 1900s, other Europeans immigrated to the United States, including from Southern and Eastern Europe. However, life was not easy, and they faced discrimination. Irish immigrants were met with job discrimination, had bad reputations, and were disliked for being Catholics. Italians faced racial discrimination as they were not considered white, religious discrimination, and frequently conflicted with Irish, despite sharing the same Catholic religion. Finally, other European immigrants were exploited for their labor, found themselves living in poor conditions, and faced racial and religious discrimination.

Despite this discrimination, many European immigrants still came to the United States, pushed from Europe by poverty, and pulled by the opportunity offered by the United States. Prior to 1917, there were few restrictions on immigration, with immigration from Europe being particularly easy, with the exception of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. However, this changed with the Immigration Act of 1917, the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, and the Immigration Act of 1924. These acts restricted immigration in various ways, heavily limiting the number of Asian, Southern European, and Eastern European immigrants, implementing literacy tests, and restricting the number of immigrants from one nationality to the United States. These restrictions were justified on the basis of maintaining the racial identity of the United States, keeping up the price of labor, and keeping out dangerous ideologies.

As previously noted, while immigration from Europe was difficult, immigration from Asia was significantly more difficult. For example, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 suspended the immigration of all Chinese laborers into the United States until 1892, prevented Chinese immigrants already in the United States from becoming citizens, and limited their ability to travel outside of the United States. Furthermore, beginning in 1907 and ending in 1924, the United States had an informal agreement with Japan, the Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907, whereby Japan prevented Japanese from immigrating to the United States. What Asian immigrants were allowed into the United States were subjected to extensive detainments and interrogations at Angel Island Immigration Station. In particular, Chinese immigrants were interrogated heavily, with detainments lasting potentially for months, as their cases were investigated. In addition, all immigrants through Angel Island were subjected to more extensive medical checks than immigrants at Ellis Island, frequently used to deny them entry.

While not completely similar, there exist major similarities between the discrimination that European and Asian immigrants experienced and the rhetoric currently used against Mexican and Latin American immigrants. For example, immigrants like Irish and Italians were perceived as violent in the same way that Latin American immigrants are perceived as criminals. Furthermore, there were also arguments that immigrant labor was driving down the value of labor, in the same way that Latin American immigrants are seen as taking American jobs today. Also, certain immigrants, like Russians were perceived as being associated with supposedly dangerous ideologies, like communism and socialism, the same way that Latin American immigrants have been perceived seeking to change the cultural landscape of the United States. In addition, one justification for extensive medical checks at Ellis Island and Angel Island was keeping disease out of the United States, associating immigrants with disease, the same way latin American immigrants have been called dirty. Finally, another justification was to keep sick immigrants from becoming a drain on public resources, which is similar to how Latin American immigrants are viewed as having unfairly benefited from welfare.

We can connect much of this rhetoric to the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, a far-right conspiracy theory. This conspiracy theory alleges that a supposed global elite is orchestrating large-scale non white immigration into traditionally white countries such as the United States, in order to replace whites with non whites. For example, claims that immigrants are engaging in widespread crime can be connected to this theory, whereby this crime could be seen as intentional to destabilize American society. Furthermore, claims that immigrants are seen as taking jobs can be seen as a coordinated effort to damage the economic capability of white Americans. Furthermore, concerns that Latin American immigrants are changing the cultural landscape of the United States is connected to the theory’s claim that white culture is being replaced with non white culture. Finally, Latin American immigrants are dehumanized as a drain on public resources, with such a drain being perceived by the theory as a coordinated effort to damage white Americans.

If it was the case that illegal immigrants are engaging in widespread crime, then it would be the case that such a crime wave would be reported. However, such a crime wave has not been reported by the news. Indeed, according to “Undocumented Immigrant Offending Rate Lower Than U.S.-Born Citizen Rate”, a study funded by the National Institute for Justice and published 9-12-2024, the Texas Department for Public Safety recorded that illegal immigrants were arrested half as much for violent crimes, and one quarter as much for property crimes, than US citizens. Therefore, if we consider arrests accurate predictors for the rate of crime, illegal immigrants are half as likely to commit violent crimes and one quarter as likely to commit property crimes, as US citizens. Thus, such a wave has both not been reported and is not supported by the data. Furthermore, despite claims that sanctuary cities, cities where local law enforcement largely does not assist federal immigration enforcement, lead to higher crime, such a relationship does not exist. Those who argue that illegal immigrants do commit violent crime rely on a small number of cases like the killings of Kate Steinle and Laken Riley. Such instances, while tragic, do not account for the millions of illegal immigrants in the US who do not engage in violent crime.

In addition, one non-violent crime that illegal immigrants are claimed as having committed is voter fraud, supposedly in favor of the Democratic party. For example, when President Trump was working to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential election, which he lost, he and his legal team frequently claimed that millions of non-citizens had illegally voted. Despite these claims, the legal teams were unable to produce any evidence supporting them, in court. In particular, former Mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, was disbarred by New York and the District of Columbia, for making such claims. These claims also lead to successful lawsuits against him by election workers and Dominion Voting Systems. Furthermore, he was indicted by Georgia, along with President Trump and seventeen other defendants, for their efforts to overturn the election. Although it is theoretically possible that these legal cases were part of a coordinated effort to cover up widespread voter fraud by immigrants, such a conspiracy becomes implausible considering the number of people that would have been involved in the voter fraud, the number of people involved in the cover up, and the scandal would have been caused by the voter fraud and its cover up.

As much as the United States has benefited from immigrants, it has long discriminated against them. Indeed, I have demonstrated that the current rhetoric against Latin American immigrants is an extension of the discrimination that immigrants to the United States have long experienced. For example, I was able to draw a line between the treatment of Irish, Italian, and Chinese immigrants, and the treatment of Latin American immigrants, particularly in regards to concerns over crime, jobs, culture, and public services. Furthermore, I a line was drawn between such rhetoric against Latin American immigrants and the Great Replacement conspiracy theory. Finally, I was able to refute specific claims made by President Trump about crime and voter fraud. Therefore, I think we can conclude that current anti-immigrant rhetoric is part of a long history of discrimination against rhetoric, is fueled by conspiracy theories, and has no basis in fact, and that as such, it should not be used either for public discourse or to formulate policy.