The inaccuracy that trump's immigration views are unprecedented in politics

[Matty]

You can dislike trump's views on immigration all you can. Even I disagree with some of them, but I think some people really need to try to scale back the historical revisionism. There has never been a utopic time in American history where everyone was let in and there was no legal process in place. Ever. Even the high tide of immigration, 1870-1920, was a period of some controls and restraints and regulations.

The "travel ban" is also not unprecedented, and in fact there have been multiple times in our history where such policy entered political debate.

I think the issue is that when trump says it, his unpolished style of speaking sounds hardcore and hardline. But if you go back and watch 1990s stump speeches and addresses to congress by bill clinton, you'd find yourself hearing similar talking points that you hear trump saying.

The bottom line is that there is not, and never will be, a time in our history where there was a political consensus that mass immigration is a good thing or not.

I urge you to fight against trump and organize against him if you feel strongly about his immigration stances and policies, but please don't push forward the downright wrong idea that his views are an "insult" to traditional american approaches to immigration. If anything, the last 40 years have been completely different than the preceding 200 years.

[JA]

You’re absolutely right. America has a very long history of xenophobia, panics about “the evil foreigner,” immigration restrictions, race-based immigration policies, and scapegoating of immigrants (even internment) stemming from citizens and politicians from both sides of the aisle. Immigrants are a convenient scapegoat and American leaders (and assorted bigots) have never been above exploiting them, knowing they’re a vulnerable group, for political purposes. They’ve always served as an effective distraction from pointing the blame at the powerful in our society by redirecting it at the most powerless.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

True, the idea that there was never xenophobia in immigration rules before is absurd. The Chinese Exclusion Act was the law for 61 years, and certainly would have been longer if we hadn't been allied with China during WW2.

[i4indyguy]

When my great grandparents immigrated from Poland (legally) in the 1880s both of my grandparents were instructed as children never to speak polish outside of the home, nor to any strangers.  I find it both comical and disheartening that at one point 'eastern' Europeans and 'dirty' southern Europeans were considered inferior and incurably uncivilized as compared to the superior 'northern Europeans' (the other half of my ancestry). Some of the decendants of these eastern and southern European immigrants find themselves in the opposite role not 3 generations later.   

[Santander]

When my great grandparents immigrated from Poland (legally) in the 1880s both of my grandparents were instructed as children never to speak polish outside of the home, nor to any strangers.

What's wrong with that?

[i4indyguy]

When my great grandparents immigrated from Poland (legally) in the 1880s both of my grandparents were instructed as children never to speak polish outside of the home, nor to any strangers.

What's wrong with that?

The anti-immigrant sentiment at the time was so fierce it was not safe to demonstrate signs of ethnic background. My great grandparents were trying to keep my grandparents from getting beat up by school gangs.

[Green Line]

When my great grandparents immigrated from Poland (legally) in the 1880s both of my grandparents were instructed as children never to speak polish outside of the home, nor to any strangers.

What's wrong with that?

Yeah.  So your grandparents are like virtually every other immigrant group that came here.  That's how it should be.  We're 1 country.  Not 500 different groups living on the same land.