Discussing the history of US Immigration policy at Fountain Street Church

Since November 2nd I have been doing sessions at Fountain Street Church on the History of US Immigration Policy on Sundays for members of the church and anyone else who wants to attend.

In the first week I provided a broad overview of this history, using a series of slides that I have developed over the years, since most people don’t have a firm grasp of the history of US immigration policy. The slide presentation begins with a few slides that are designed to deconstruct certain aspects of this history that perpetuate misinformation about immigrants and immigration policy.  

However, most of the presentation looked at actual US immigration policies from the founding of the US, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act, which not only demonized Chinese people, but limited how many Chinese people could be in the United States.

Another major theme of this first session was to ask the question about why so many immigrants were coming, especially those who were risking their lives to enter the US/Mexican border at unsanctioned border points. We then talked about the reasons for people taking such risks when crossing the US/Mexican border, along with trying to understand the root causes of why people were leaving their countries and coming to the US. I identified three main reasons, three root causes for why so many people from Mexico and central American were coming to the US especially from the 1970s through to the present.

In the second session on November 9, we did a deeper dive into the root causes on immigration, particularly with those who were undocumented immigrants. I shared two reading assignments that provided greater context of the current immigration realities.

The first reading assignment was from the book, No One is Illegal: Fighting Racism and State Violence on the US/Mexican border, specifically chapters that provided historical context around US military and economic policy that were two of the major contributing factors for why so many people from Mexico were being displaced and entering the US without documentation.

The second reading I provided people was from the book, American Intolerance: Our Dark History of Demonizing Immigrants. I asked people to read the chapter entitled, No Dogs, No Negroes, No Mexicans, which investigated to deep hatred that white people and white institutions displayed towards Mexicans and Mexican Americans, all throughout the US, but particularly in the southwest part of the country.

In addition, I presented a brief historical overview of US military and economic policies towards Central America from the mid-19th century til today. I talked about how the US sent the Marines to invade those countries, plus the history of US funded and military training for the counterinsurgency wars in the 1970s and 80s, followed by the Central American Free Trade Agreement, also known as CAFTA.