Bachmann: Asian Exclusion Act Worked “Very Well”

Not to harp on immigration, because I know many people don’t consider it to affect them, but when mainstream presidential candidates begin to promote exclusionary policies based on race or national origin, especially in a post-SB 1070 climate, it behooves us all to start thinking immigration is important to us. I’m speaking in particular of a presidential debate aired on CNN this week in which Michelle Bachmann said the following:

The immigration system in the United States worked very, very well up until the mid-1960s when liberal members of Congress changed the immigration laws. What works is to have people come into the United States with a little bit of money in their pocket, legally, with sponsors so that if anything happens to them they don’t fall back on the taxpayers to take care of them.

I guess the part of that law that Bachmann missed was that it was enacted specifically to keep people of certain races/ethnicities/national origins out of the United States. Like so many U.S. immigration laws, this particular law that was in place until the 1960s — National Origins Act and the Asian Exclusion Act — gave preference to European immigrants.

So, again, if you don’t think immigration affects you personally, ask yourself whether discriminating against people based on their race does, then I think you might understand how immigration matters to you.