Sevens

Mistreatment of Immigrants

• The mistreatment of immigrants is a continuing story of the United States. Initially, the European settlers, as uninvited immigrants, forcibly took away the land and resources from native inhabitants based on dubious religious doctrines.

• Once the posterity of immigrants forgets their ancestors, they see themselves as the sole owner of America and view new immigrants as intruders.

• In the 1840s and 1850s, 5,000 fragile boats carried Irish refugees fleeing the Great Famine to the United States. These Catholic immigrants were met with contempt by the Anglo-Saxon Protestant population, who subjected them to derogatory slurs.

• In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act suspended Chinese immigration to the United States, suspending their citizenship. The Chinese were mandated to carry a certificate of residence, a law strictly enforced.

• In the 1930s, more than a million Mexicans and Mexican American citizens were deported as a dubious solution to the Great Depression.

• In 1942, a presidential executive order resulted in the internment of Japanese Americans after removing them from their houses, businesses, and neighborhoods. The U. S. Supreme Court upheld the internment.

• In the 21^st century, detention centers mistreat unwanted immigrants, threatening some 11 million residents. Some policymakers and deportation officials are the children of immigrants mistreated in prior decades.

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