IMMIGRATION POWER

The History of Immigration

This will explain how the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 fundamentally changed how immigration to the United States worked and how that change reshaped the country. It’s a concise historical overview of immigration policy from the mid-20th century to the present. The United States has long been considered a nation of immigrants, but attitudes toward new immigrants by those who came before having vacillated over the years between welcoming and exclusionary. 

The Beginning of Time 

Thousands of years before Europeans began crossing the vast Atlantic by ship and settling en masse, the first immigrants arrived in North America from Asia. They were Native American ancestors who crossed a narrow land bridge connecting Asia to North America at least 20,000 years ago, during the last Ice Age. Over countless generations, these populations developed into the diverse Indigenous societies that lived across the continent. The transition to European colonization began in the late 1400s and early 1500s, as explorers and settlers from Spain, France, England, and other nations arrived on the Atlantic coast. This period marked a significant shift in migration patterns, introducing new populations and laying the groundwork for the complex immigration history that shaped the modern United States. By the early 1600s, communities of European immigrants dotted the Eastern seaboard, including the Spanish in Florida, the British in New England and Virginia, the Dutch in New York, and the Swedes in Delaware. Some, including the Pilgrims and Puritans, came for religious freedom. Many sought greater economic opportunities. Still others, including hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans, arrived in America against their will. Below are the events that have shaped the turbulent history of immigration in the United States since its birth.

​The Naturalization Act of 1790

In January 1776, Thomas Paine published the pamphlet “Common Sense,” which argued for American independence. Most colonists considered themselves Britons, but Paine argued for a new kind of American identity. He wrote, “Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. This new world has been an asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe. After independence and the creation of the United States as a new nation, the First Congress addressed who could become an American citizen. In 1790, they passed the Naturalization Act. This law restricted naturalization to "free white person(s) of good character." The act was rooted in and reflected the white-centric views of the era's legal system and reinforced White supremacy in early American immigration policy. The intent behind the act was to protect White American colonizers and help increase the White population in the United States. The concept of whiteness was not solely determined by skin color, but was also shaped by Enlightenment-era pseudoscience and colonial ideologies. Europeans were viewed as “fit” for republican self-government, while other groups were considered inferior. The Act aimed to define requirements for legal residency, establishing, in practice, a racial restriction on citizenship that lasted until 1952. Non-whites, enslaved people, and indentured servants were excluded from the path to citizenship. The act also fulfilled the Constitution's mandate to create a uniform rule for naturalization, providing a legal process for immigrants to become citizens. It impacted citizenship in other ways as well: children born abroad to U.S. citizen parents were considered citizens, and children under 21 of naturalized citizens were also granted citizenship.

​The Whiteness Game

Let's talk about something interesting; the Irish, Greek, and Italian immigrants played into society to earn whiteness in America. When Irish, Greek, and southern Italians came to the US for work, they were identified as not being “WHITE” and lower than blacks in the media. Whiteness was not simply a matter of skin color but a constructed category that came with certain privileges and protections in American society. Accepting and being accepted as “white” meant greater access to jobs, neighborhoods, civic rights (voting), and broader social inclusion. However, America wanted white that were willing to play the game. They had to drop their culture to assimilate into the type of Whiteness that was appropriate for the United States. They left ethnic enclaves and integrated into broader white neighborhoods, especially after World War II. The Strategies of Assimilation were that many members of these groups adopted dominant cultural norms by learning English quickly, participating in mainstream institutions, serving in the military, and entering civil service and political machines.

The Luck of the Irish

In the mid-1800s, large numbers of Irish immigrants came to the United States, especially after the Great Famine devastated Ireland. Many arrived poor, hungry, and with little formal education. They settled mainly in Northern cities such as New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia, where they took difficult, low-paying jobs in factories, construction, domestic service, and railroad building. They often lived in overcrowded and unhealthy tenement housing. As Catholics in a largely Protestant country, they faced strong discrimination, including anti-Irish stereotypes, job exclusion, and hostility from nativist political groups like the Know Nothing Party. Although Irish immigrants were legally allowed to become U.S. citizens after meeting residency requirements, social prejudice made full acceptance into American society slow and difficult.

At the same time, Irish immigrants entered cities where free Black Americans were also struggling for economic survival. Because both groups were often competing for the same low-wage jobs, tensions developed. Many Irish immigrants, seeking to improve their own status and gain acceptance as “white” Americans, adopted the racist attitudes that were common in U.S. society at the time. In some cases, this led to open hostility and violence. A tragic example occurred during the New York City Draft Riots amid the American Civil War, when many rioters, largely working-class Irish men attacked Black residents, burned homes and buildings, and killed dozens of people.

Migrazione Della Louisiana

The Italians were not treated as white in America, so in the 1870's large populations migrated to the south. Louisiana, particularly New Orleans, became an early hub of Italian (especially Sicilian) settlement. This region had a unique racial order: remnants of French and Spanish colonial systems allowed for a more fluid understanding of race than the strict Black /white dichotomy found elsewhere in the South. 

In relation to Black communities in New Orleans, the situation was complex. Italians entered a society already structured by strict racial divisions following the end of slavery and the rise of Jim Crow segregation. At first, some Italians occupied an uncertain position in the racial hierarchy and were sometimes treated differently from native-born white Americans. However, over time, most Italian immigrants were legally and socially accepted as white. As they became more established, many aligned themselves with the white majority, benefiting from segregation laws that disadvantaged Black residents. Economic competition for jobs; especially in dock work, agriculture, and small-scale trade; sometimes created tensions between Italian and Black workers. While there were occasional instances of cooperation among working-class communities.  Tensions exploded in 1891 after the murder of the New Orleans police chief named David Hennessy changed history.  His killing cause several Italian men acquitted or had charges dismissed, and a white mob lynched 11 of them in one of the largest mass lynchings in U.S. history. This event showed how vulnerable Italians were to violence and prejudice.  After the lynching, the U.S. government paid a total of $25,000 in reparations to the victims’ families. Each of the eleven families received about $2,211.90. Even so, this money did little to heal the deep wounds of violence and discrimination they had suffered. After the payments to the Italian families, it’s crucial to note that Black Americans, who were lynched in far greater numbers, never received anything. Their families were left without justice, without compensation, and that inequality still echoes today.

The Greek Immigrant Experience

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, many Greek immigrants came to the United States seeking economic opportunity and escape from poverty and political instability in Greece and parts of the Ottoman Empire. Most were young men who planned to work, earn money, and sometimes return home, though many eventually settled permanently. They established communities in cities such as New York City, Chicago, and Boston. Greeks commonly worked in railroad construction, factories, mines, and mills, while others opened small businesses like diners, candy shops, grocery stores, and shoe-shine stands. Over time, they built strong ethnic communities centered around the Greek Orthodox Church, which helped preserve their language, religion, and traditions while supporting new arrivals. Greek immigrants faced significant challenges as they tried to build stable lives and become American citizens. Many Americans viewed them as foreigners who were racially and culturally different. They experienced workplace exploitation, low wages, poor living conditions, and occasional violence. In February 1909, a violent anti-Greek riot erupted in South Omaha, Nebraska, after a Greek immigrant named John Masourides was involved in a police officer’s death. A mob of between 1,000 and 3,000 men attacked Greek neighborhoods, destroying property and forcing nearly the entire Greek community out of town. What happened in Omaha was a stark reminder of how fear and scapegoating could destroy entire communities. It was a brutal, collective punishment, and for generations, that neighborhood never fully recovered, just another chapter in a long history of racial and ethnic violence in America.  So, just like the Greek town in Omaha, the Black community in Tulsa was also burned to the ground. In Greenwood, they had built a prosperous neighborhood, but in a single night, it was reduced to rubble just like the Greek families, they lost everything they had worked for. Both cities were shattered by collective violence, and the resilience of those communities continues to inspire, even in the face of that loss.

Present in USA

Immigration in 2025 isn’t just policy on paper. It’s not some abstract debate happening in a marble building somewhere. They're real families. Real kids. Real fear. What we’re seeing right now is aggressive enforcement being pushed hard more ICE presence, faster deportations, visa suspensions, and policies that feel like they’re stripping people of dignity in the name of “law and order.” The government frames it as protection and security. But on the ground? It feels like terror to a lot of communities. Children are scared to go to school. Parents are afraid to drop them off. Families are living in survival mode — watching every move, avoiding public spaces, questioning who to trust. That kind of fear changes a community. It shifts how people show up in society. It weakens the middle class. It fractures neighborhoods. It creates trauma that doesn’t just disappear because someone says, “Well, it’s legal.”

And let’s talk about the deeper layer because we can’t pretend race isn’t part of this conversation. When enforcement overwhelmingly impacts Black and Brown communities, when rhetoric echoes ideas about “taking the country back,” it doesn’t land as neutral. It lands as assimilation pressure. It lands as a message about who belongs and who doesn’t. And historically, we know what that kind of messaging has done before. Birthright citizenship debates? That’s not small. That’s foundational. The idea that someone born here could have their legitimacy questioned shakes the core of what this nation claims to stand for. Stripping that protection doesn’t just target immigrants it destabilizes the constitutional promise itself. This moment isn’t just about borders. It’s about identity. It’s about power. It’s about whether fear is being used as a political tool. And whether entire communities are being treated as collateral damage in a larger agenda. You can argue enforcement. You can argue legality. But you cannot ignore the human cost. And right now, that cost is being paid by families trying to live, work, and raise children in peace.

That’s the truth of it and here's an example.

On January 7th, 2026, Renée Nicole Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen and mother of three, was fatally shot by an ICE agent during a raid in Minneapolis. Witnesses say she was driving away when the agent fired three times, killing her. This incident, part of a federal operation, raises deep questions about who is seen as fully American and how citizenship boundaries are still enforced often violently today. After what happened to Renée, just a few weeks later, Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse and a U.S. citizen was also killed by ICE during a raid. He was filming, trying to capture what was happening, and they took his life too. These two deaths just weeks apart show us how race and citizenship still define who gets caught in the crossfire of today’s immigration system. Trump called both deaths tragic. He said he felt even worse about Renée because her parents were his supporters, but he just said it was sad all around and didn’t really take responsibility. He framed it as a tough call but didn’t question the raid itself. On February 17, 2026, 52-year-old Black special education teacher Dr. Linda Davis was killed in Savannah, Georgia, when her car was struck by a man fleeing an ICE traffic stop. The driver, a 38-year-old Guatemalan national with a prior deportation order, ran a red light, causing a fatal collision. Dr. Davis, a beloved teacher, leaves behind four children and a fifth she was raising.

Besides what happened to Renée, Alex, and Dr. Linda Davis; there are other ICE incidents making waves. In Newark, a chase by ICE agents caused a car crash with kids inside. In Georgia, Rodney Taylor, a man with no legs, is stuck in detention even though he’s severely ill. And in Chicago, the mayor is now investigating whether ICE was operating outside the law. All of this is shining a light on how much accountability is still missing. If ICE keeps going like this, the future could be really harsh, families separated, trust in the system shattered, and whole communities living in fear. But at the same time, it might spark a stronger call for change. People might demand a system that’s more fair, more humane, and actually honors the idea of belonging for everyone. However, if immigration is ever going to be right, it can’t just be defined by whiteness. Whiteness isn’t a real culture; it’s just a way of forcing assimilation. What we need is a future where every culture, every immigrant, every person can claim their place in their own way without being forced to fit into an old standard.