Xenophobia

Trump Calls Haiti and African Nations 'Shithole Countries' in Bipartisan Immigration Meeting

| Importance: 8/10

During a bipartisan meeting with senators in the Oval Office to discuss immigration, President Trump asked why the United States would want people from ‘shithole countries’ while being briefed on changes to the visa lottery system. Trump questioned why America would want immigrants from …

Donald Trump Dick Durbin U.N. Human Rights Office African Union racial-politics immigration republican-party xenophobia institutional-racism +2 more
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Trump Weaponizes MS-13 Gang to Demonize Central American Immigrants and Justify Mass Deportations

| Importance: 8/10

President Trump traveled to Long Island to deliver a speech linking MS-13 gang violence to immigration policy, using the gang to justify harsh deportation policies. In his 2018 State of the Union, Trump highlighted the murders of teenagers Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens, stating ‘Six members of …

Donald Trump MS-13 racial-politics dog-whistle-politics immigration republican-party xenophobia +2 more
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Trump Launches Presidential Campaign Calling Mexican Immigrants 'Rapists' and Criminals

| Importance: 9/10

Donald Trump formally announced his presidential candidacy with a speech demonizing Mexican immigrants in explicitly racist terms. Trump declared: ‘When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re …

Donald Trump racial-politics dog-whistle-politics immigration republican-party xenophobia +2 more
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Sacco and Vanzetti Executed After Seven Years of Biased Proceedings

| Importance: 8/10

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed by electric chair at Charlestown State Prison in Massachusetts at 12:19 AM, exactly seven years after their arrest. Despite worldwide protests, new evidence suggesting innocence, and widespread doubt about the fairness of their trial, Massachusetts …

Nicola Sacco Bartolomeo Vanzetti Alvin Fuller A. Lawrence Lowell Webster Thayer civil-liberties labor-suppression xenophobia judicial-capture anarchism +1 more
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Immigration Act of 1924 Imposes Racist National Origins Quotas Based on Eugenics

| Importance: 9/10

President Calvin Coolidge signs the Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act), establishing the first permanent comprehensive restrictions on immigration in American history through a national origins quota system explicitly designed to preserve white racial dominance. The law reduces annual …

Calvin Coolidge Albert Johnson David Reed Madison Grant Harry Laughlin +1 more immigration-policy racism eugenics xenophobia institutional-capture +1 more
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Emergency Quota Act Establishes First Numerical Immigration Limits Based on National Origin

| Importance: 8/10

President Warren G. Harding signs the Emergency Quota Act (also called the Emergency Immigration Act or Johnson Quota Act), establishing for the first time numerical limits on immigration to the United States based on national origin. The law restricts annual immigration from any country to 3% of …

Warren G. Harding Albert Johnson U.S. Congress Immigration Restriction League immigration-policy xenophobia institutional-capture labor-suppression nativism
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Sacco and Vanzetti Arrested in Red Scare Climate of Anti-Immigrant Hysteria

| Importance: 8/10

Italian immigrant anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are arrested in Brockton, Massachusetts, on streetcar robbery charges that will be escalated to murder charges in connection with a payroll robbery in South Braintree that left two men dead. The arrests occur at the height of the …

Nicola Sacco Bartolomeo Vanzetti Frederick Katzmann Webster Thayer Department of Justice civil-liberties labor-suppression xenophobia judicial-capture red-scare +1 more
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Chinese Exclusion Act Bans Immigration Through Racist Labor Scapegoating

| Importance: 8/10

President Chester A. Arthur signs the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first significant federal law restricting immigration into the United States based on race and nationality. The law prohibits all immigration of Chinese laborers—defined as “both skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese …

Chester A. Arthur U.S. Congress Chinese immigrant workers Labor unions West Coast employers immigration-policy racism labor-suppression gilded-age scapegoating +1 more
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