Donald Trump and JD Vance have waged war on immigration, demonizing immigrants from Haiti and Venezuela specifically, but really promoting the concept of nativism–that America should not welcome “foreigners”, despite the reality that it is immigrants who have been the lifeblood of America since its founding.
First, it was French immigrants in the 1790s who were victimized by the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798.
Then it was Irish and German Catholic immigrants who were victims of hate and prejudice in the 1840s and 1850s, including the creation of a nativist party, the American or “Know Nothing” party.
Then, it was Italian and Polish Catholic and Eastern European Jewish immigrants in the fifty years from the 1870s to the 1920s who were subjected to discrimination, leading to restrictive immigration laws passed under President Calvin Coolidge in the 1920s.
Asian immigration–from first China until banned in 1882—and then Japan, banned in 1924— suffered from terrible mistreatment and hatred.
Latin American immigration, particularly from Mexico, but from all of the nations of the hemisphere, was subjected to constant discrimination, and still are, with the one exception of Cuban immigration due to the perceived threat of Fidel Castro after 1959.
And as people migrate to escape bloodshed, violence, and poverty from nations around the globe, they face new demagoguery now being promoted by the Republican Party under Trump and Vance, and this despite the fact that Trump’s third wife is an immigrant, and Vance’s wife is from an immigrant family.