At the height of the Great Depression, politicians worried that Mexican workers were taking jobs away from American workers. The government forcibly repatriated a third of Mexicans living in the U.S. at the time. This effort resulted in fewer jobs and lower-paying jobs for Americans. Ali Velshi points out that we’re having this exact same rhetorical and idealogical conversation again.
Donald Trump is stoking anti-immigration sentiment again, using dehumanizing language to describe immigrants and pushing the idea that “the United States is in decline.” This same rhetoric was used to garner support for the National Origins Act, signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge in 1924, which set strict quotas for immigrants arriving from countries other than Western nations, setting America back for decades to come.
Immigration actively improves American society, and the overall history of our nation and its economic journey proves that. Wharton School Professor and author Zeke Hernandez writes that immigrants “foster investment, create jobs, fill our public coffers, reduce crime, and successfully integrate culturally.”
People want to immigrate to our country because they want a better life. But embracing immigrants as a moral and ethical obligation to help others isn’t enough. We need to understand that immigration is essential to our economic growth, integral to innovation, and necessary to a healthy and prosperous country.
LISTEN: ALI VELSHI TALKS ABOUT THE 1920’S QUOTAS THAT KILLED OUR ECONOMY
WATCH: VELSHI ON THE NECESSITY OF IMMIGRATION
MORE FROM MSNBC’S ALI VELSHI
