Immigrant Worker Parallels: “Yellow Scare” (1870s) and Mexican Rapist/Murderer Meme (2015)

With the House Judiciary Committee holding a hearing today to advance the meme that Mexicans are murderers, it is useful to recall the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 [taught in my LER course, Immigration, Employment and Public Policy]. During the Gold Rush and building of the first transcontinental railroad, a labor shortage prompted an immigration wave of young Chinese men. In time—just as today—these workers were vilified because they were foreign. The Chinese Exclusion Act initially ended the influx of new Chinese immigrants. Successive amendments to the law increased the harsh treatment of Chinese immigrants—for example, by requiring them to register with the federal government, and then revoking their certificate if they left the U.S. to visit their native land and sought re-entry. Official discrimination against Chinese remained in place until the law was repealed in the Magnuson Act of 1943. That’s 61 years of excluding an entire nationality … and now, this: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/house-to-take-up-bill-blocking-money-for-sanctuary-cities/2015/07/20/fb98ccb8-2f43-11e5-818f-a242f28e7022_story.html