Kevin Johnson published Op-ed on Immigration Policy and Race in Daily Journal

President Trump’s recent racially charged comments about immigrants from Haiti and Africa “echo a long tradition of racism in American immigration law and policy," Dean Johnson writes.

Dean Johnson cites laws that limited Chinese immigration in the 1800s, quota systems put in place by Congress in the 1920s to limit the immigration of “inferior races,” the mass deportation of Mexican immigrants under “Operation Wetback” in the 1950s, and other examples of racially motivated immigration policies. Under the guise of protecting American workers, the Trump administration has followed a similar course, pursuing policies that reduce immigration by people of color from Mexico, China, and India while focusing deportation efforts on Latinos, Dean Johnson writes.

Johnson comments, “Trump's immigration policies include something old and something new. They reflect the history of concerns with immigrants who are racially and culturally different from the Anglo Saxon norm. But the president's express reliance on racially charged arguments to justify his policies is in conflict with this nation's steady progress toward racial tolerance.”