re: #113 HappyWarrior

I wish so many white Americans who defend policies like this could be forced to see their immigrant ancestors making the same difficult journey, experiencing the same harassment and apathy, maybe then they wouldn’t be such “just follow the law” smug assholes. I don’t know if my ancestors were legal immigrants or not. Most in fact were likely just immigrants. They got here and that was that. Some I have records of. Some I do not. And I research this stuff far more than your average Know-Nothing right wing asshole.

Prior to the racist 1924 Immigration Act, there really wasn’t any immigration laws other than the Chinese Exclusion Act (no surprise, also racist). For the most part, people who came before 1924 really didn’t have to do anything except book passage on a ship or come overland from Canada or Mexico.