My latest for the @washingtonpost on Trump’s proposed immigration ban. You will be shocked to learn that he is using covid19 as pretext for advancing the restrictionist vision of zero immigration. @womnknowhistory @IEHS1965 @LaSalleHistory https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/04/22/president-trumps-immigration-suspension-has-nothing-do-with-coronavirus/

Why propose a temporary halt to all immigration? This was FAIR’s plan from 1992. Puts the onus on advocates to undo it later. Nothing temporary about it. Dan Stein explains:

If you think post-war liberals took the threat of Hitler far too seriously and want to liken mass immigration to white genocide, have I got the ideology for you (which undergirds Trump's immigration policy):

Borrowing a page from John Tanton and FAIR, Trump’s move hopes to arrest “demographic change" and the loss of a white America. (I wrote about Tanton here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/07/18/john-tanton-has-died-how-he-made-america-less-open-immigrants-more-open-trump/)

FAIR has been super successful at creating a politics framework that dehumanizes unauthorized immigrants. But even in the 1990s, it was unable to advance its true vision of ending legal immigration altogether. In Trump—with the covid emergency—it has found its best hope yet.

Thanks as ever to the powerhouse editorial team @madebyhistory for making the time yesterday to sharpen this up and get it out quickly @brianros1 & @KathrynBrownell