I’ve been researching #Italian #immigration to the #US for my #novel and every other primary source I open from 1890-1915 gives me major Déjà vu to how the #Republicans talk about immigration today.

“They aren’t white enough”, “they are a drain on our resources”, “deported because they would be a public charge”, “uneducated”, “barbaric”, “increasing crime”.

All the arguments are the same. Some of the laws are the same. And yet people in 1890 were arguing about the lack of race purity and “dirty blood” of people from Europe who the current conservatives would wholeheartedly consider white Christians and part of the great West or whatever.

Really makes you see as clear as day how BS and arbitrary all of this racist and anti-immigration rhetoric is. It’s nonsense. Always was. Always will be.

People deserve dignity and respect. Immigrants deserve to be welcomed in and accommodated.