Page 14 - 2024 March April Magazine

Lincoln Day Banquet Presentation
1923: Supreme Court case United States v. Thind. Thind applied for naturalization, and was an immigrant from the Punjab region of India. Thind relied on the same “science” relied on in U.S. federal courts (courts the Supreme Court had relied on in Ozawa), and stated that because scientists had grouped Indians from Punjab as belonging to the Caucasian race, that he was also Caucasian. The Court determined that “The Aryan theory as a racial basis seems to be discredited by most, if not all, modern writers on the subject of ethnology. A review of their contentions would serve no useful purpose.”
Thus, the Supreme Court was “unable to agree” with the federal courts that they had previously relied on. The Supreme Court held:
“What we now hold is that the words ‘free white persons’ are words of common speech, to be interpreted in accordance with the understanding of the common man, synonymous with the word ‘Caucasian’ only as that word is popularly understood.
. . It is a matter of familiar observation and knowledge that the physical group characteristics of the Hindus render them readily distinguishable from the various groups of persons in this country commonly recognized as white.”
The decision created the official stance to classify South Asian Indians as non-white, and allowed Indians who had already been naturalized to be retroactively stripped of their citizenship.
1929: The National Origins Act of 1929 created the first quota system based on national origin. It favored immigrants from northern and western Europe and banned the “inferior races” of Asia and southern and Eastern Europe. It also capped immigration to the U.S. at 150K per year and resulted in severely restricting non-protestant immigration.
1932: Immigration was essentially shut down during the Great Depression. This was accompanied by coerced repatriation
and deportation of between 500,000 and 2 million Mexican Americans, mostly citizens.
1940: Nationality Act of 1940, was supposed to codify and unify all U.S. laws relating to nationality and naturalization. It reserved naturalization for white individuals, individuals of African descent as required by the 14th Amendment, and individuals of Native American descent.
1954: Government implements Operation “Wetback.”
“The name of the program made obvious its targets, given
that ‘wetback’ is a derogatory term used for individuals from Mexico, central and South America. Local police enforcement focused predominately on Latino neighborhoods in the Southwestern states. Regardless of where police enforcement occurred, officers looked for ‘Mexican-looking’ individuals and asked those individuals for identification of their immigration status.
Fear of violence, unemployment and the potential militarization of their neighborhoods and homes caused many Mexicans and Mexican-Americans to flee regardless of their immigration or citizenship status. Approximately 3.7 million
Mexicans were deported during Operation ‘Wetback.’ United States citizens of Mexican descent as well Mexican nationals were forcibly removed from the United States.
The Immigration Act of 1965 had a profound impact on Asian immigration. For the first time Asian countries were considered equal to European countries.
2001: The year 2001 will forever be associated with 9/11, and immigration policy is no exception. Antiterrorism policies dramatically affected the civil rights of immigrants, specifically people from the Middle East and people practicing Islam. These antiterrorism policies targeted individuals based on race, national origin, and religion.
9/11 adversely affected Mexican and Central American immigrants, leading to a spike in deportations. Local police officers acted as immigration agents.
Immigration continues to be highly political and race continues to play a significant role in policy and in rhetoric.
Let me add a local aside. In advocating for the exclusion of Black people from the Oregon Territory in the 1840s (which included what is now Washington) Samuel Thurston, after whom Thurston County is named, said:
“[It] is a question of life or death to us in Oregon. The negroes associate with the Indians and intermarry, and, if their free ingress is encouraged or allowed, there would a relationship spring up between them and the different tribes, and a mixed race would ensure inimical to the whites; and the Indians being led on by the negro who is better acquainted with the customs, language, and manners of the whites, than the Indian, these savages would become much more formidable than
they otherwise would, and long bloody wars would be the fruits of the comingling of the races. It is the principle of self- preservation that justifies the actions of the Oregon legislature.”
And now to then-senatorial candidate Lincoln in the Lincoln Douglas debates about the fate of slavery and our nation. Latinos played a part in these famous debates. Lincoln said:
“I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.”
First Debate with Stephen Douglas in the Lincoln-Douglas debates of the 1858 campaign for the US Senate, at Ottawa, Illinois (21 August 1858). Lincoln later quoted himself and repeated this statement in his first Inaugural Address (4 March 1861) to emphasize that any acts of secession were over reactions to his election.
I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races. I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition
to this that there is a physical difference between the white
and black races which I believe will ever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. ... And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together
14 PIERCE COUNTY LAWYER | March/April 2024