America has a long history of creating second-class citizens.
- In 1807, New Jersey removed the vote for women and free people of color.
- In the 1820s and 1830s, the Court decided that Native Americans no longer owned their land, once it had been ‘discovered’ by Christian settlers and that the US controlled all Native American tribal land.
- In 1848, after the US annexed several states from Mexico, Mexicans living there got US citizenship, without the right to vote.
- From the 1840s to the 1880s, Irish immigrants were frequently refused entry and deported.
- For 100 years after the Civil War, most African-American citizens were effectively denied the right to exercise their vote.
- In 1855, the ‘Greaser Act’ was used to make Mexican-Americans second-class citizens in California.
- In 1866, native born Americans got citizenship, except for ‘Indians’ (who didn’t get the vote until 1924).
- In 1902, Chinese citizens and permanent residents—who had arrived before the 1882 ban—were required to get a certificate proving their residency, often difficult due to mysterious fires that frequently burned out Chinese neighborhoods.
- In 1917, Puerto Ricans and others gained US citizenship, without the right to vote, even now.
- In the 1930’s, the US deported around 1 million Mexican-Americans, mostly US citizens.
- After Pearl Harbor, Japanese-American citizens in western states were arrested and placed in concentration camps for the war.
- During ‘Operation Wetback’ in the 1950s, the US deported over 1 million Mexicans, with panic and mass-arrests that resulted in many legal Bracero farm workers and US citizens being deported and losing their citizenship.
- In 2017, Trump rescinded residency for long-term resident childhood arrivals, known as Dreamers.
- State laws, such as CA Prop 187, Arizona SB 1070 and now TX SB 4, seek to racially profile Mexican-American citizens with frequent stops by law enforcement to check their papers—despite many family histories pre-dating statehood.
Despite all the contributions that immigrants and the children of immigrants—Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, Sonia Sotomayor, Steve Jobs and Walt Disney—have made to our country, racists have frequently targeted us for legislation to strip us of our rights.
A second Tr*mp presidency, under a more conservative court, intends more mass deportations, racist changes to immigration laws, promoting Christian Nationalists and their beliefs in government, more voter restrictions and gerrymandering aimed at African American communities, legal action against political opponents, restrictions on women’s rights, violent bigotry, etc.
My family will be targeted by several of these policies, so I would appreciate it if you would vote for Joe Biden in November.