Transcripts For CSPAN2 Erika Lee America For Americans 20240713

You are watching booktv on cspan2 with top nonfiction books and authors at the weekend. Tv, television for serious readers. She teaches American History at university is the wishes a professor, a Mcknight University professor, the rudolph chair in immigration history and the director of the immigration History Research center. Lee is the author of three awardwinning books in u. S. Immigration, americas gates, chinese immigration during the exclusionary era, 18821943, and angel island, gateway to america in the making of asian america, a history. At the immigration History Research center she has helped to merge immigration history with the digital humanities. She launched and oversees the National Endowment for the humanities funded immigration story project which works with recent immigrants and refugees to collect, preserve and share their experiences. Her book america for americans a history of xenophobia in the United States is the subject of tonight talk. Please welcome erika lee. [applause] hi, seattle. Im so glad to be a good im glad to be back here at town hall. I was last here in 2010 before it was renovated so im really happy to be back. And im very glad that we begin this evening with a land acknowledgment. I would like to repeat that land acknowledgment. As i will discuss later, xenophobia and settler colonialism are tightly interconnected. Native americans along with africanamericans were made into this countries first others, and the racism and discrimination that continues to impact native americans has also been a driving force in xenophobia. So im glad that we started the evening that way. I am going to begin by reading from the book, and going to take us back, its wintertime here, its even worse in minneapolis but im going to take us back to a gorgeous summer day in july and im in new jersey. Its a beautiful midsummer day in jersey city, new jersey. And im on a boat heading to the statue of liberty and Ellis Island National museum of immigration. The mood is cheerful. A father explains to his children had their great, great grandfather came to the United States a century ago from austria. An africanamerican family records of video. Everyone excited to see the statue of liberty . The mother asks. The kids jump up and down and yelled yes. Im trying to share in this patriotic celebration of ellis island, a place that serves as a symbol of americas welcome to immigrants here but i keep thinking about another message i heard that day, the 2016 Republican National convention has just ended and that gop platform put forward by donald trump was one of pure xenophobia. Ever since launching his president ial campaign, trump has pledged to beef up border security, and muslim immigrants, the port 11 million undocumented People Living in the United States, and build a massive wall along the countries southern border with mexico. Not that he was the official republican president ial nominee, his extreme views were being repeated by a growing number of voters and politicians, ripping on the conventions opening scene, make america safe again, speaker after speaker painted a terrifying portrait of america under seized by immigrant 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 the seem to matter. The crowd inside the quicken loans arena was crazy for trumps message. During his 75 minute speech in which she identified immigration as one of the greatest threats to the United States and promised to restore americas immigration security, he was repeatedly interrupted by cheers, applause and chance of bill the wall. I cant forget these angry tones and raised this as i ride the ellis island and walked through the museum exhibits. There we learn about earlier chapters in the antiimmigrant history, but were 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 roots instead. In true American Fashion we do this by buying something. There are team italy and team poland tshirt. There are no team china tshirts by the way. There are snow globes of the statue of liberty and of the Leaning Tower of pisa. In the ellis islands cafe, however, they take a different inspiration offering menu items like the all american angus cheeseburger, and the freedom burger. I was trying to figure what the difference is between the the freedom burger comes with two patties and angus berg with just one. If you really love your freedom you must also love your beef. Between the gift shop i ordered that vegan quinoa salad so clearly not american. Between the gift shop and the cafe it seems that we can both, we can buy both immigrant and all american identities that happily coexist. But a know it is not that simple. Im struggling to figure out how these two americas fit together. I didnt 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 threw out my lesson plans and i hunkered down with my students, many of whom are firstgeneration refugees and immigrants. They shared with me their fears of being deported, of being separated from their families, of being victims of hate crimes. They had many questions for me. One was, i think one that many of us were asking, how could this happen . How could voters elect and explicitly racist xenophobic president ial candidate who openly called mexicans criminals and rapists and he would call for complete and total shutdown of muslims to the United States . Another one was, how could 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 to figure it out. I started writing this book. So like any good scholar, i went back to my office and went to the library. I started pulling them books on my shelf and making big piles and started reading and rereading them. There are common themes in the history longer fee of xenophobia in the United States. One is that historians have consistently explained that at the immigrant sentiment rises and falls with economic, political and social crises, with rapid demographic change, war. They say that when americans feel confident, we are welcoming, and when we are anxious, we are not. They are also treated xenophobia as an exception to americas immigrant tradition. We are told that at the immigrant campaigns have been unfortunate episodes promoted by a paranoid extremist and an otherwise welcoming nation. Theres a consensus that xenophobia peaked in the 1920s. This is is when we passed discriminatory National Origins quotas that close the door to immigration, to mostly southern and Eastern European immigrants, close it all the way to immigrants from asia. This lasted for 40 years. Yet with the Civil Rights Movement many scholars have explain xenophobia waned. When did has resurfaced its been a momentary blip 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. Ive made a point of unearthing these dark and violent chapters in our immigration history but ive always ended on a positive note. Ive always marked the progress that we have made. And i realized that this progress narrative that summary of the books that ive read, that i teach and that i have in turn talk to my students no longer held up. I knew that i needed to write a new history, so i started writing this book. So this is what i found. This idea that the United States is a nation of immigrants, we recognize this in these very wellknown illustrations of immigrants on ships looking towards the statue of liberty, looking towards a new beginning. And we know that most of our immigrant history focuses on how those immigrants did able to succeed, were welcome, were integrated. This idea that the United States is a nation of immigrants, a country that has welcomed immigrants remains true. In the last 200 years, more than than 80 Million People have been admitted into the country. The United States remains the World Largest immigrant receiving nation, even today. But the United States is also a nation of xenophobia, meaning that is has been ruled by an irrational fear and hatred of immigrants so that even as we have welcomed millions to our shores, weve also reported more immigrants, upwards of 55 million, since 1882, than any other country. We have been wary of almost every group of foreigners who has come to the United States, from german immigrants in the 18th century, irish and chinese in the 19th, mexicans, japanese, italians in the 20th 20th, and muslims today. Across the centuries americans have argued that immigrants are threatening because they are poor, because the practice of different faith, because they bring crime and disease, because they take away jobs from deserving White 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 humans history, that rather as a crisis, likening the movement of peoples to an invasion of Hostile Forces that requires a military like response. So this cartoon published in 1903, its title is the high tide of immigration and national menace. The danger here is the socalled riffraff immigration from southern and Eastern Europe. We can tell the illustrated talk about southern and Eastern Europeans because he helpfully labels on their hats things like mafia or anarchist or criminal. We also know that this illustrated is also referring to mexicans because the label there is outlaw. And theres helpfully a chinese figure in there in the sober nn as someone with a coolie hat. But these immigrants pose a threat to the United States as an unending wave or flood, and invasion double take over the United States, displaced its nativeborn and destroy american values, like liberty and its institutions. So the u. S. Has passed discriminatory Immigration Laws and detained, incarcerated and expelled immigrants. It has exploited and segregated 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 be . One of the answers is that xenophobia is an american tradition. It dates back to our founding and has endured across the centuries. 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 a special interest in pursuit of political power. Even as americans have recognized that the threats allegedly posed by immigrants were, in hindsight, unjustifi, they have allowed xenophobia to endure. It has changed and adapted with our times targeting one threat after another, succeeding to repetition and justified as a necessary defense of our nation. So lets go back to these roots, and to do that we start with one of our founding fathers. In 1755, Benjamin Franklin was writing many, many letters to his friends and colleagues, and in a series of them he warned that socalled swarthy immigrants were coming to the colonies, that they were the most ignorant stupid sort of their own nation. They herded together and was quote, soon so outnumber us that our language and even our government would become precarious. Why should pennsylvania, he asked, 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. Hes at the immigrant views by another great american, samuel morse, otherwise known as the inventor of the telegraph. He warned the catholic immigrants were an insidious invasion and an enemy to american democracy in 1841. New Technology Like his telegraph helped to spread anticatholic views across the country. This was not just simple prejudice. This led to violence and bloodshed, hitting a a peak in louisville, kentucky, on election day in 1855 when 500 members of the at the immigrant and at the catholic Political Party, a new Political Party known as the American Party, also known as the know nothings, tour through the city attacking foreigners. By nighttime the city skies glowed red with the flames of burning buildings and the city streets were stained with blood. From 22200 people, mostly irish irish and german catholic immigrants died and what is been remembered as bloody monday. Xenophobia in the mid19th century was not just about anticatholicism, a tradition that is is deeply rooted in the United States as racism, it was also about political power, this new Political Party i just mentioned, the america hardy, spearheaded a new Look Movement using xenophobia to secure votes, elect at the immigrant lawmakers and make at the immigrant policy. Its goal was to shift the balance of power, of political power in the United States. So this is another reason why xenophobia indoors. It is part of our american politics and part of our american democracy. The know Nothing Party argued in this cartoon from 1850 shows that dangers foreigners were unfit for u. S. Citizenship. That they were drunk criminals hurt you can see the stereotypes of irish and german cheer. Chair. Irish whiskey and german beer and that they were literally stealing the ballot box and rigging elections. This is where this idea of immigrants voting fraudulently comes from, deeply rooted in our political history. At its height the American Party reported 1 million members. Remember i started the talk about, talking about the importance of colonialism and xenophobia. The roots of this date back to this movement as well. This party, the American Party, started calling themselves natives, native americans. This was a strategy, a rhetorical strategy to not only distance themselves and distinguish themselves from the foreigners, it also to distinguish themselves and to rhetorically take away native roots or from real native americans. So this term, native america, also the other thing they did is they would use symbols of what they believe to be native American Culture and terms of native American Culture in their own organizing processes and labels. So this term, i would like us to think about this, the next time you hear this term use native american, i hope that you will remember both the xenophobic roots of that term as well as the ways in which it was used to continue the dispossession of native americans. The American Party was shortlived, but its local policies including the dismissal of i wish more state workers in massachusetts, calling on the federal government to extend the residency requirement of naturalization and five to 25 years, limiting Public Office to only usborn citizens, or the native americans, and forcing deportation in states like massachusetts helped to make xenophobia and enduring part of American Democratic politics. So the other part of using this label native american is not just to denigrate others but also to claim specific rights and privileges, for example, that only nativeborn citizens can hold Public Office. These early examples reveal the deep and early roots of americas xenophobic tradition in religious bigotry and in american politics. But another reason why xenophobia has endured, why it has become so central in the United States, is because it is a form of racism. This has function alongside slavery, seller colonialism, conquest, segregation and White Supremacy. Africanamericans and native americans remain as this Country First others and whenever we have 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 defines certain populations as racial and religious others who are inferior or dangerous, or both here and then it demonizes them as groups, not as individuals but as a group based on these presumptions. Again, xenophobia is not just a matter of prejudice or bigotry. It has played a central role in americas changing definitions of race, of citizenship, of what it means to be an american. It inspires and justifies discrimination and racial violence. So we see xenophobia as racism first being expressed in this idea that germans are swarthy, or that Irish Catholics are somehow not purely white and are dangerous point but it is with the chinese immigration that we see the first full extent of xenophobic racism chinese immigrants who first started coming in larger numbers the california during the gold rush became considered a race apart, much more like africanamericans and native americans and like european immigrants. They were inferior. They were an assimilable. They took jobs away from deserving americans. You see this in this cartoon of the 1880s called the common man, this dehumanizing caricature 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 bloody monday riots in louisville, kentucky, another crowd of selfproclaimed americans gathered to protest against immigration, but this time it was on the west coast and the targets were chinese. On april 5, 1876, 25,000 people gathered in San Franciscos union hall for a statewide meeting on chinese immigration. It was the largest gathering ever on the pacific coast. The threat of chinese immigration was considered to be so great that in 1882 the United States Congress Passed the chinese exclusion act, the First Federal law to single out a specific group for exclusion. Immigration from china plummeted. In 1882 before the exclusion act was passed, 40,000 chinese managed to come into the country. Country. Five years after the act was passed in 1887, only ten were allowed in. Chinese were also barred from nationalized citizenship and subjected to the countries first largescale detention and deportation policies as well as government required identification cards, registry and surveillance. This is a page from an officers log from the late 19th century, an officer who was stationed in california. 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 hand write down name, age, occupation, any physical marks and also details about whether they had returned to china or reentered 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 already here. You here in seattle know this history well, because we know that very close to where we are now, in 1886 the entire chinese population of seattle was forcibly expelled. This happened just months after the entire population of chinese in tacoma were also expelled. This is not a single episodes, but they were part of a much Larger Campaign to drive out chinese and Chinese Americans from the west. This illustration on the left is from harpers illustrator weekly, and it shows the mob that forcibly went into chinese businesses in chinatown here in seattle, as well as marching them down to maine and first where they were forcibly put onto the steamer. On the right i think im missing one illustration. There is also records at the university of washington, in the archives of governor squire was governor of the territory at the time and theres record of chinese, Chinese Americans who write to them asking for help. One of the notes says, forced expulsion of chinese from tacoma and seattle in 1886. Chinese residents forcibly driven out from 200 300 and out in imminent danger in seattle. We are asked you that you secure protection for us. This history has real meaning and deep roots here, but in many other communities around the United States. By the 1890s, we turn to another threat. Its not from asia, but rather from italy, poland, greece, hungary. Italians, jews and all others from southern central and Eastern Europe are labeled now inferior races at the countries leading scientists and politicians. Again, these are not paranoid extremists. They are the elite in universities and in the halls of congress. By 1893, a group of boston political and economic elite form a new group called immigration restriction league. This is one of the one of the roots of the title of this book, america for americans is in the articles and writings of this particular antiimmigrant organization, also by leading u genesis, Madison Grant and also president Calvin Coolidge in 1924 signed immigration policy as a defense of america for americans. But it is perhaps this document that i found in the archives that 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 flood of foreigners who took advantage of the u. S. , who pushed her native born aside and retained allegiance to foreign flags. This pamphlet was titled america for americans, its red, white and blue color featured a white robed and and hooded klansman brandishing an american flag. The message inside was clear, immigrants are a threat to the United States. White protestant americans are the only true americans, vigilance and regulation through the kkks campaign of racial violence was the only way to protect america for americans. By the 1920s congress established discriminatory National Origins quotas that kept the doors open to immigrants from northern and western europe, but closed it to almost everyone else. Countries like great britain, germany, ireland, sweden received nearly 87 of the visas while countries like poland, italy, czechoslovakia, russia received just 11 . The impact was great. So far a country like italy, which had sent in 1921 over 222,000 immigrants after the quotas were put into place, the quota for italy was only 3845. These laws were championed by adolf hitler in the 1930s. He claimed them as a model for nazi europe. These laws have also been championed by someone more recently, someone sitting in the white house today, white house senior advisor, steven miller. Even refugees fleeing nazi europe could not find a way into the United States. In may of 1939 a group of over 900 jewish refugees fled europe in search of safety. They had visas to enter cuba. When they arrived, cuba refused entry to all but a few. They turned next to the United States and we know from documents that survived that they were so close to the city of miami that at nighttime they could see the lights twinkling in the sky. They sent cable after cable to president Franklin Delano roosevelt who refused to answer. They were forced to return to europe. Britain, belgium and holland took in some of the refugees, but 254 perished in the holocaust. During the Great Depression, we also target another group, calls to get rid of the mexicans became part of local and federal policies. Nearly 20 of the entire mexican and mexicanamerican population in the United States equaling several hundred thousand were pushed out of the country, including 60 who were american citizens by birth. This is a photograph that was published in the los angeles evening herald in 1932 which captured the chaotic scene of nearly 1400 mexicans who are waiting at the citys central station, train station, to board a special South Pacific deportation train bound for mexico. So the deportation ran many times from 1931 to 1934 or so and the caption for this photograph is very appropriate in showing how xenophobia works its way into every fast facet of our political culture. When i see the photography see individuals who are wearing their best clothes, who are trying to regain some of the respectability that these 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 sombreros with their baskets, guitars, and threadbare blankets waiting to return home to the homeland that they, you know, left so many years ago in, you know, with joy, basically. So i find it fascinating the ways in which even in the caption of the photograph we can be sending these subliminal members that continue to dehumanize immigrants. The next decade, japanese americans were the targets. 120,000 were forced from their homes and incarcerated in camps for the duration of the war because the United States believed they were not loyal to the United States, but rather loyal to japan. Just like mexicanamericans, twothirds were american citizens just like mexicanamericans, they were deamericanized, but in a part of u. S. History thats not as wellknown as japaneseamerican incarceration, we know that american xenophobia also spread beyond u. S. Borders. At the same time that the United States was incarcerating its own residents, the u. S. Government was also orchestrating and financing the mass roundup as innocent men, wi wimp women of japaneseamericans from latin america. If japaneseamericans were a threat to our security, latin were attacked by the japanese enemy including japanese descended people from the americas. But an unofficial goal that historians found out later was that this mass deportation was meant to provide a supply of people of japanese ethnicity, an action that some have called hostage shopping, who could be traded for american civilians stranded in japan after pearl harbor. By the time that 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 had been apprehended, deported and incarcerated in the United States. As these glimpses of xenophobia during the Great Depression and world war ii reveal, xenophobia is easily weaponized during times of change and anxiety. Thats one of the main thesis in the history, right . But one of 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. In times of racial struggle, but also racial progress, even during the Civil Rights Movement. After world war ii, the United States undergoes and the American Society and american population, we undergo a dramatic transformation in the ways we understand race and racism. Explicit racism falls out of favor. We know that there is no scientific basis to this idea of genetic superiority or inferiority that helped to pass and justify some of those egregious laws. Support for liberalizing u. S. Immigration policy begins in the postworld war ii era and peaks during the Civil Rights Movement. In 1958 president john f. Kennedy outlines a radical new vision for Immigration Reform in his book, a nation of immigrants. This photograph shows posters from a group called the American Committee of italian migration. This is a group of italian americans who were amongst the most active proponents for liberalizing and reforming immigration policy because, as i showed in that earlier example, they were amongst the most effective, affected by those policies and make an argument its not just a civil right. Its not just about equality, but its good for our foreign policy. Lawmakers agree, and in october of 1965, racebased discrimination in american law, American Immigration law is formally dismantled as part of the Civil Rights Movement and as part of the 1965 immigration act. So this photograph shows the bill signing ceremony. Its president lynn dodon Bayne Johnson and they are in jersey city, at Liberty Island at the foot of the statue of liberty. He flew all of these lawmakers 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 a new era was beginning, that no longer were we going to discrimination in immigration, based on where someone came from, but rather, on what they could bring to the United States. He wanted to send a message that the u. S. Was recommitting itself to immigration. This is the thesis. This is the main understanding and frame work that weve had about immigration in the past 50 years, that this law was the law that ended it all and that now we do not have discrimination in immigration and that xenophobia must also be a thing of the past. But when i examined the debates around this law, the compromises that were made, but also, the consequences of the law, i found a very different story. I found that while both liberal and conservative lawmakers professed a commitment to civil rights and racial equality when theyre talking about passing this law, they also used veiled and not so veiled terms of black and brown immigrants flooding in the country, exacerbating existing race problems with africanamericans and displacing whites. They warned against altering the current racial makeup of the United States in 1965, one that was majority white. Some even argued that to not change the Immigration Laws, would constitute a form of reverse discrimination towards europeans and White American citizens. So the issue at hand was how to reframe Immigration Law that was not discriminatory based on national origin, but that treated every country the same. The initial proposal was to preserve immigration from the western hemisphere and not to put any restrictions or caps on it, but more and more lawmakers believe that to allow immigration from the western hemisphere to come in completely unrestricted would constitute a form of reverse discrimination towards european and White Americans. In this message we can see the undercurrents of White Supremacy ding r continuing even during the Civil Rights Movement, this idea that the u. S. At its core is white and europeans deserve preference over others in relation to immigration and other matters. So that the law that was passed was designed still to privilege european immigration. It also did put in place new restrictions that in conjunction with other policies disproportionately impacted mexican immigrants. In included the first ever numerical cap on immigration from the western hemisphere and other measures that ended certain types of mexican migration. Particularly the program which brought 4. 6 million migrants from mexico since world war ii and also, laws that required increased documentation for mexicans only. In addition, the law affirmed the decades old exclusion of gay and lesbian immigrants as socalled aliens afflicted with sexual deviation and prohibited them from receiving visa. This ban targeting homosexual immigrants would not be listed until 1990. So a new intentional regime of restriction and White Supremacy continued in Immigration Law, but it was harder to spot, hidden under the language of nondiscrimination and professed commitment to civil rights. Much to the lawmakers dismay, however, the 1955 immigration act did not work out the way they had intended. The problem was that the laws restrictions which gave mexico a quota of 20,000. A quota that amounted to a 40 reduction from mexico from pre 65 levels, did not match economic needs. The u. S. Still relied on 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 had not been one before. By 1986, there was an estimated 3. 2 million undocumented immigrants in the country. In addition, the european immigrants who the lawmakers thought would come. They actually stayed home, and instead, migrants from asia, from the caribbean, from africa, and from latin america came. By the 1980s, the new the majority of new immigrants were noneuropean. This mix of unintended consequences of immigrants who were not from europe and increase in undocumented immigration has let and set the foundation for the debate that we are having today. By the 1990s, xenophobia had become a central part of american politics and culture. Conservative activists, writers and politicians like peter brimlow, Samuel Huntington and Patrick Buchanan warned that if mexicanamericans did not assimilate, they take the resource jobs away and would eventually replace White Americans. They didnt just target undocumented immigrants, they were railing against all latinx, as well as from the caribbean, asia and africa. If you go through Patrick Buchanans books like i did. [laughter] you can see that theres this growing hysteria in the way in which hes describing immigration as a threat so that this book is the death of the west, another one is suicide of, you know, of america 6789 its not just warning about immigration, its warning about the multiculturalism. Its warning about the fact that white women are not having enough babies. Theres a whole host of arguments, but it becomes increasingly the rhetoric becomes increasingly rammed up by the time he publishes in the early 2000s. But the new xenophobia was not about race, it was also about power. In the 1990s, the socalled war on illegal improved immigration proved to be going to the polls. The shifting of power in the United States. Shifting the balance of power right ward 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 had morphed into a term we recognize, border security. A campaign for border security, in was a bipartisan effort. It became a normal part of our Public Discourse and was translated into policy. One particular example is how the actual act of migration became criminalized. Beginning in the 1980s and the 1990s, antiimmigrant lawmakers and strategists argue that undocumented immigration was not just a violation of Immigration Law, it was a crime, and it was a serious crime. And that those who committed it were serious criminals who might go on to commit other serious crimes, rape, murder. And thus, they deserve to be harshly treated in the most punitive and cruel ways. Both at the border and also in the United States. This is the rationale behind the socalled states rights initiatives relating to immigration, such as californias proposition 187, passed in 1994. We just recognized the 25th anniversary of this law. This bill sought to deny undocumented immigrants, all Public Benefits including education and health services. It also deputized Public Sector workers into checking the immigration status of people who were coming in seeking services, especially and including Public School teachers who were supposed to check on the immigration status of their Elementary School students. Another law, more recently passed, is the 2010 law in arizona that allows police to determine the immigration status of someone arrested or detained, a provision known as show me your papers. Now, proposition 187 passed, but it was thrown out by the courts. However, its impact went on to influence other state laws like the arizona bill, but also federal policy. It is under president bill clinton and congress that the u. S. Begins to militarize the u. S. Mexico border. We see the increase in both funding as well as structures along the u. S. Mexico border in this slide. But we also need to look at the laws. One clinton an i remember clinton era law with the xenophobic view that undocumented immigrants were undeserving criminals. This law went on to bar them from receiving most Public Health services and benefits. That law is still in effect. Another law expanded the category of people designated as criminal aliens by making both Violent Crimes and nonViolent Crimes such as traffic violations and shoplifting punishable by deportation. George w. Bush pushed for comprehensive Immigration Reform. He also very famously moved the g. O. P. Towards an embrace of latinx populations. He was part of that 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 deter other undocumented border crossings. This is the beginning of the zero tolerance policies that weve been hearing so much about under the trump administration. After 9 11, the Bush Administration moved all immigration and 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 welcoming and integrating immigrants, it was about protecting the United States from danger. So National Security became a new code word for racial a 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 islamophobia as a way to mobilize voters with various antimuslim messages and proposals. In 2008, the false charge that president ial candidate barack obama was not only foreignborn, but also muslim represented more than a desperate attempt to discredit a political rival. It was a sign of how damaging the label, foreign and muslim, had become, but also, how effective it was in american politics. And of course, one of the leaders in socalled birth er movement was reality tv star donald trump. Once in office, president obama continued to enforce and even expand on the policies of previous administrations. In fact, during the eightyear obama administration, a Record Number of individuals were apprehended and deported. This was obamas miscalculated effort to compromise with republicans on immigration. They said enforce the border, secure the border first and then well come to the table. They never came to the table, but the president removed a record high number of people. In 2012, that number was 419,000 people, 10 times the number of people deported in 1991. Obama was famously called deporter in chief by critics. Soso far ive tried to answer the question how we got here and why xenophobia has endured. Its deeply rooted in our history. Its part of american racism, it drives american politics. But the obama years point to another hard truth about xenophobia to 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. Anticathol anticatholic screeds became best seller, and the alpha disclosures of maria monk. And this is the beginning of fake news, i suppose, that told lurid details in a catholic convent. This one used the them kicking out chinese out of the laundries. The chinese must go, we have no use for them since weve got this wonderful washer. What a blessing to tired mothers. It costs so little and dont injure the clothes. The fine print also assures users that the deterrent will not turn the clothes yellow. These ways of selling xenophobia, but products or books does not compare at all to the profits made today running public and private immigrant Detention Centers. The department of Homeland Security manages the largest immigrant detention system in the world. It spends more on Immigration Enforcement than on all other enforcement agencies combined. To private company, Corrections Corporation of america known as cbo and there are revenues over 5. 3 billion dollars. The center for American Progress and relations found that a wellfunded u. S. Network of bloggers, tv and news personalities and outlets and organizations have spent outwards of 57 million promoting prejudice and hatred against islam and muslims. So, xenophobia as an enduring part of american racism and politics and capitalism in the past and present, this explains how we got here. So that by the time that donald trump ran for president in 2015, calling for a great big wall, and a complete and total shutdown of muslims coming to the United States, this idea that mexicans were criminals and muslims were terrorists invading the United States had been wellestablished and normalized in the media. Many americans expressed outrage at these explicitly racist and xenophobic positions. The hard truth is trump will been repeating a message that had been gaining traction for decades. What is now, however, in the allout stault, the allout assault on immigration that he has launched since entering office. This has included a wide range of new policies. Increased Immigration Enforcement in the interior of the United States. The elimination of temporary protected status for many noncitizens. The travel band on nationals from mostly muslim majority countries. The separation of familys riving at the u. S. Mexico border without documents making it nearly impossible for Central American Asylum Seekers to regain entry. The resettlement in the United States to their lowest level since we began resettling refugees 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. Theres the new proposal to bar new immigrants and make those already in the u. S. , if they use Public Benefits, Public Benefits like food stamps, are public housing. Early childhood education like head start and the school launch programs. And this is currently blocked in the courts, but the reports from organizations and advocates show that immigrants are removing their names from receiving these necessary benefits. Theyre not signing up. Theyre fearful that signing up for these benefits will somehow cause them to be deported. Legal immigration, so, so much of the rhetoric is about the socalled bad immigrants, right . The undocumented ones, the criminals, the 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 ch. So this is where we are today. And as xenophobia has become increasingly embedded in american politics and life, it is imperative that we fully understand are its cost, what is at stake today. This is not just about immigrants, it is 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 a vocal and mobilized minority to deck tate policy dictate policy for the majority. Most americans rejected Donald Trumps divisive rhetoric and opposed his xenophobic policies before and after the 2016 election. A majority supported legal status for them brought to the United States as children, socalled dreamers as well as as an increase in legal immigration. What they did not support was a wall. Its also imperative to point out that these policies have put in place by executive order, not by congressional legislation a path that would require witness testimony, research, debate, compromise and votes. This means that all of us have been let out and kept out, or shut out of the legislative process. Xenophobia threatens national unity. It allows White Supremacy and White Nationalism to come to the forefront of american politics and culture. We saw this in the 1920s with the Ku Klux Klans support for immigration restriction merely echoing a rallying cry, america for americans. That other politicians and scientists were already saying. Today antiimmigrant and white nationalists fueled violence are on the rise. After the 2016 election, antimuslim hate crimes increased by 19 . In the second half of 2018, they had risen again by 83 . Extr extremist related murders and rallies and demonstrations have grown. I dont need to remind you that we recently recognized the one Year Anniversary of the synagogue shooting in pittsburgh who are that in august of 2019, 22 were shot down at an el paso walmart, both by individuals who expressed antisemitic and racist sentiment. With so much at stake understanding exactly how xenophobia works is fundamental to the future of the american democracy. And for the creation of a more humane global society. Its 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 in order to try to answer this question of why and how we have allowed the United States to become a nation of xenophobia. What is left unanswered for all of us today is, will we reclaim and remake the United States as a true nation of immigrants or will we allow xenophobia to endure . Thank you very much. [applaus [applause] i know, its such a sometimes when i when i talk i can see i can see all of you in the crowd and i think, ive got to write about Something Else cause you feel the same way that i felt in writing this book, my husband described this book for any of you harry potter fans, he described it as my horror crux that it really felt like something that i needed to do. I was not planning on writing this book, but for me it felt like a necessary, a necessary action, something that i could do, something that only a few of us are trained to do, but it really has literally made me sick. Its a horrific its a horrific history and i said before when i typically write the epilogue, i try to end on a hopeful note. If you read the book, theres hope in the epilogue, too, but there are many times when i felt like that the most appropriate ending would be to simply just drop the mic and like leave the room. [laughter] or where the text would sort of deinvolve into, you know, just i am this book and i have some ideas what we can do, but im not im not as hopeful. Im certainly not as hopeful as i would like to be or have been in the past, so that being said, i think theres time for a few questions and there are microphones up on the side, so id be really happy to hear your ideas. Im normally negative, pessimistic about the future of this subject. My parents, my mothers people came to america from italy in 1914 and, the only way that anyone under the age of 15 in the future can have any idea whats going on, we have to change the curriculum of grade schools in this country. It 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, but do you see any movement in our National Educational system toward letting kids know about this horrific history of this country . Is anyone advocating for that . Absolutely, they are and thank you for that question. And i agree. First of all, we need to pay our teachers more so that they can do more. [applaus [applause] because these types of research is not going to be part of core curriculum. So, it takes extra effort, it takes extra effort on behalf of teachers to seek this out and to then adapt lesson plans to their classrooms. Id like to shout out to an organization right here in seattle and that is denshow, the japaneseAmerican History organization thats doing phenomenal work on education at all levels. I just met with one of their staffers this morning who was sharing with me some of their curricular efforts. Clearly one of the goals of denshow is to make sure that the history of japaneseamerican incarceration becomes a central part of the teaching of our American History, but it has expanded to look at immigration and racism and settler colonialism more generally. The challenge is that gap between many of the organizations who are creating curricula and overworked, underpaid teachers who are just facing so many and increasing demands on their time and energy and resources. So, there is great curriculum out there. They are getting it to teacher i think is much harder, but thank you for the question. I think im supposed to alternate. So, yes. Thanks for the talk, professor lee. One of the things you mentioned, you sort of called into question the idea of crisis in immigration. But i wanted your thoughts on to what extent given that we know that Climate Change 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 that you draw in the book . Yeah, so good question. One of the i think actually the last sentence i write in the book is that for so many years we have considered migration the crisis. Id like to reset the terms of the debate and name xenophobia the crisis. We do know that there are Record Numbers of people who are on the move. Every year the u. N. Comes out with a new report on migration. Were upwards of 70 Million People both internally displaced and externally. Internally meaning within the country of their birth, but we also can see how in response to this growing movement of peoples that its not just the United States. We are in this a Global Crisis of xenophobia where countries are erecting either paper walls or real fences or creating so many deterrents to migration and paying other countries to i hate to use this term, but warehouse migrants so that we know that the longest running refugee camp that has served somalia refugees is a refugee camp in kenya. There are three generations of somalis who have been living in that camp with no opportunity to leave. These policies are perhaps very politicalcle i expedient. Like ive made the point before. It certainly gets voters to the polls, but in the longrun theyre not going to help solve either a 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 and if we continue to approach this challenge from a perspective of xenophobia of fear and hatred, thats not going to serve any of us. We will eventually have to rely on those who 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, who is one of the worst in the administration, his family escaped the holocaust. I know. I mean, where does that come from, this paranoia . Were a strong country, the gifts that so many, especially the asian gifts that weve had in technology and in all kinds of things. The european gifts, people who came because of the holocaust, and escaped europe. What is the thought in this country that people who have come here and contributed so much are a danger . I cant understand that kind of paranoia. Yeah, so thats another one of the questions that i asked as well and some of its not just steven miller. Hes been able to he is still there while so many others have been forced out. Because hes effective. Its not just him. There are and actually, this is very much part of the history. Th that, you know, the group that has just recently been targeted and one of the ways in which they become america and they demonstrate their loyalty and patriotism is to turn on the next group. You know, so i have this transition from the antiirish chapter to the antichinese chapter where i go from these bloody riots on the east coast and real discrimination that irishamericans felt and experienced, to then a few decades later especially if youre on the west coast, they are the citys mayors. They are the state senators and they are at the forefront of both the racial violence directed at the chinese, but also at passing laws. This is where this is america, unfortunately, but this is also part of how racism works. But continuing in it is. And needless to say. Because it affects all of us. You cant be comfortable. You know, you feel a discomfo discomforture. And this is our history. Knowing that we can laugh, laugh at some of the things that previous generations had labeled immigrant groups, but then when we turn around and say, oh, right, were using this the same rhetoric and the same tools against, say, Central Americans. Americans are very, very adept at rationalizing it, but they dont really want to become americans. So thats where we really need to be very honest with ourselves. Thank you. Hi, professor lee. I want to thank you so much for your work. The previous text motivated me to become a history teacher. Oh, yay. You were talking at the end of your talk about hope. And especially when i think about talking to my students, i wonder if you would give examples of xenophobia or solidarity across groups and any about solidarity in the past so we can realize it in the future. Thank you. Yeah, so i have many, many champions or people that, you know, heroes and heroines that always i was always drawn to as a student. Reading writers like mary enton or reading about the life of social worker jane adams on one who promoted a much more inclusive vision of america. So i think through literature, that can be a really effective way for students to imagine another version of the United States. The place where i do gain hope from and where i know that the present that we live in is much different than the past, is in going to, participating in the many 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 interfaith, its crossgeneration. Its the soccer moms and the kids from the housing projects. And i know that as a historian, that has not happened before on immigration issues. We know that no one spoke out against chinese exclusion. We know that no one for japaneseamericans and nothing like this mass movement. So thats what we have to keep going, but we also have to hold our politicians accountable for real, durable and humane solutions. My fear is that we have gone so far in the extreme on all of these immigration issues, that simply resetting and going back to 2016 is not well, first of all, thats going to be extremely hard given where we are now, but i also firmly believe that thats not going to be enough given what were going to be facing. So that was sort of a, yeah, im hopeful, but, no, im not, sorry. I tried. [laughter] yes. Hello, i just wanted to announce we only have time for the final three questions, but professor lee will be signing in the library over here so you can ask her anything over there and then one america is tabling if you want to check in with them. Hi, so i have some dear friends who are chinesecanadian from vancouver. Is it an illusion that canada handles immigration issues better and are we open to learning from them . Yeah, so one of the things that canada did after we passed our exclusion act was that canada passed theirs, but they tried to do it in a much more polite way, sorry to say or sorry to say they also did that with japanese and south asian exclusion. So that by the 20s the laws were almost the same. The laws that are in place in places now like canada or australia are meritbased. And theres a lot of debate over whether thats the way that we want to go. Meritbased meaning so actually President Trump was is not a fan of family reunification, which is what the 1965 act put into place. He calls it chain migration and he advocates for a meritbased proposal. I think that one that is more restrictive than what canada and australia have. But it is a policy that is has both supporters and detractors because of the way in which critics say it would siphon off the most educated and skilled immigrants from their home countries, that were simply looking at immigrants as a economn economin an economic function rather than more broadbased system that would allow people who have very few skills to come and take advantage of what we have offered to so many of our ancestors who came with very little and were able to make something for themselves and their children and grandchildren. So its a yes and a no kind of answer. Hi. I disagree with you. I think this book was extremely helpful because you told up a mirror to the truth and unless were willing to look at the hard truth, were never going to be able to get anywhere. My question is this, one of the things that really offended me along the way over the which was horrible, but the birther rumor and obama said, oh, no, no, im not muslim. I find that offensive because he could have said theres nothing wrong with being muslim and mccain the woman said hes a muslim and he said, no, maam, hes a good person. And if you could comment that those responses didnt help the situation. I think that echoes really nicely with the answer to the earlier question about the ways in which we have, i think you used the right term internalized, but the ways in which both we have a long history of islamophobia in the United States, much longer than pre sorry, than post9 11. So its easy for us to sort of open up this 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 almost like our only other option is to do the rubric of good immigrant, bad immigrant. And it leaves us few option toss open up a much more humane rationale of seeing things. So we can say, right, the opposite of the undocumented is the dreamer, right . So, yes, they came in without documentation, but its their home. Theyve made a home for themselves here. They want this is america. We are americans and we only want to stay in america. One of the challenges that i think dreamer activists also faced is they dont just want a clean dream act. That would only give benefits to them. They also see a much needed plan for reform so that Central American Asylum Seekers could find a pathway in so that we dont diminish Refugee Resettlements so its almost meaningless in a time of growing numbers for refugees. Its a zero sum game where were left with crumbs and we need to be able to have that conversation and to call out, its not just that youre not muslims, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with being muslim. We need to take it that next step further and we need to mi micksure make sure that its not going to hold up one group over another, thats what is going to be challenging, i think. Last 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 and these big headlines, like wayfair is furnishing, the Detention Centers and as individuals i would argue vote with our dollar, what can we do to sort of push back as much as we can on that . I was at google in 2017 the week that they were organizing the tech walkout in relationships to the muslim ban, so i agree that there is this growing movement of reaction and protest and using corporate employees, but also, some of the leaderships using the corporate base to send a message of rebuke about these immigration policies. Here is the bad part now. There is a growing use of tech in Immigration Enforcement and here in seattle, its not just here in seattle, but its particularly relevant, amazon is one of the most important and leading companies in spearheading some of that software and technology that is very concerning to not only privacy experts, but those in the immigrant Rights Movement to are fearful that the data that is being used will also be shared with ice and others and help make it easier to track migrants whereabouts, so its part of that profitable argument that i was making, but to speak to your other point about what can we do, i think the actions of not only marching in the streets, supporting immigrant advocacy organizations, supporting the organizations who are filing and challenging in the courts, so many of these laws like the a. C. L. U. , supporting Refugee Resettlement organizations, obviously communicating with our elected officials, but also voting with our dollars. I think those are all things that we can do on an everyday basis while we wait for the 2020 elections to unfold. Thank you so much for these great questions. I really appreciate it. Thank you. [applaus [applause]. [inaudible conversations] its president s day and that means an extra day of book tv. Today youll hear from former secretary of states Condoleezza Rice on u. S. And china relations. Good afternoon, everybody. Good afternoon and welcome to the aspen institute. My name is nick burns, executive director of the aspens s