Ninety-five years ago, an anti-immigration barrier was created. It was not made of concrete or steel. It was made of paper, a legislated act of the Congress of the United States. It was successful in sharply limiting the entry of would-be immigrants, particularly those seeking asylum.
Attitudes regarding immigration, principally the Immigration Act of 1924, are still with us. The Act authored by Washington Congressman Albert Johnson, who was chairman of the House Immigration Committee, has been described as “a legislative act of xenophobia.”
The law was a reaction to the mass immigration of people from Asia and Eastern Europe (Italians and Jews), characterized as “undesirables.” From the late 1800s to 1924, 4 million Italians and 2 million Jews immigrated to the U.S. More than 40 percent of Italian immigrants went back to their home country. They took their earnings with them to purchase land and improve their lives. Returning to the countries from which they came was not an option for Jews as they sought safety and a new life from the countries from which they fled.
On Nov. 8, 2018, Canadian Prime Minister Justine Trudeau offered an apology for turning away a ship with German Jewish people seeking refuge. The SS St. Louis from Hamburg was refused permission to land by Cuba, the U.S. and Canada. The ship returned to Europe. (More than 250 people were then murdered by Nazis.) Canada is the only country that has apologized for its refusal to grant asylum to the passengers of the St. Louis. Miss Liberty, with the poem by Jewish poet Emma Lazuras on her pedestal, must have wailed in despair. (“...Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, ...”)
We must consider, did the world miss the opportunity to have saved others that would be like Jonas Salk, Leonard Bernstein, Admiral Hyman Rickover, father of the nuclear navy, Albert Einstein and many, many more?
Today, President Donald Trump has created chaos that affected the lives of loyal, innocent government workers so he could make good on a campaign promise to build a wall on the southern border to keep out “rapists, drug dealers, sex exploiters of young girls, and other bad people.” To bully Congress to his will, Trump made the lives of more than 800,000 government workers and others miserable by being furloughed and without paychecks for weeks. He had taken out his petulance on those who had nothing to do with a Trump Wall.
There are those that point to previous presidents that built walls in some areas between Mexico and the U.S. So why the resistance to Trump’s $5.7 billion project? The answer is that Trump hysterically exaggerates who those seeking entry are. It cannot be proven that we are “being invaded.” Trump’s warnings have no merit and appear to be delusional.
In his State of the Union address, Trump read from his speech obviously not reflecting his own views on uniting Congress for the good of the whole of the country. Instead, he built a verbal wall between what he read and his feelings. He introduced:
• A 10-year-old girl that survived cancer and raised funds to benefit children with cancer. His administration policy of “zero tolerance” tears children away from parents wanting to enter the U.S.
• A Holocaust and Pittsburgh synagogue survivor. At the Charlottesville demonstration neo-Nazi thugs shouted anti-Semitic chants. Trump called those who defamed the memories of millions killed by German Nazis “nice people!”
• Family members of murder victims of illegal immigrants. It is certain that immigrants commit crimes and must be held accountable. Studies show that immigrant criminal activity is far less than in the general population. Trump’s claims that we are facing a crisis is another example of delusional thought.
The president emphasized unity when at the same time he builds a wall of hostility between himself and leaders of the Democratic Party. He has begun to demonize Nancy Pelosi claiming that her actions are harming our country. (It worked for him on Hillary Clinton!)
There are walls and there are walls. Some of solid materials, some on paper and some are verbal.
Sol Koenigsberg is executive director emeritus of the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City.
