Episode Recording -- "The Taking Down and Rebuilding of Immigrant Populations , Episode 1, April 24, 2025"

0:15-02:35: Americas history of Exclusion of Immigrant Populations

Lillian Heitz explores the treatment of Chinese immigrants during the Gilded Age, highlighting

how economic depression and job competition fueled racism and anti-Chinese sentiment,

especially among labor unions. Influential figures like James D. Phelan, mayor of San Francisco

in his primary source document “ Why the Chinese should be Excluded” argued that Chinese

immigrants threatened American civilization, leading to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882—the

first U.S. immigration law to target a specific race. Politicians used racially charged language to

justify exclusion, while laws like the General Immigration Act of 1891 reinforced these policies.

Despite the hostility, advocates like Wong Ching Foo and Yan Phou Lee fought for Chinese

rights, revealing the era's deeply rooted xenophobia.

2:35- 4:40 : What does Securing our Borders really mean?

Lillian Heitz draws connections between the In January of 2025 the Trump administration signed

an executive order to halt immigration and the Chinese Exclusion Act . In an interview Donald

Trump made statements claiming immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the country highlights

ongoing prejudiced narratives. These views portray jobs as a limited resource reserved for U.S.

citizens, contradicting the American ideal of equal opportunity for all, regardless of origin. It is

very common for politicians to make claims against immigration without regard for the work that

these immigrants do.

4:40- 7:04: Uplifting immigrant voices

Lillian Heitz emphasizes the importance of uplifting immigrant voices in American history.

Mary Tape’s 1885 protest against Chinese segregation powerfully questioned discrimination,

asking, “Is it a disgrace to be born Chinese?” Pioneers like Wong Ching Foo and Yan Phou Lee

fought for Chinese American rights and political inclusion, founding organizations and testifying

before Congress. These voices challenge the notion that America’s values belong only to white,

native-born citizens. Instead, they reflect the country’s ongoing struggle over who truly belongs.Inclusion should be based on shared values, not race or origin, and immigrant voices help realize

the American ideals of liberty and justice for all.

Thank you for tuning in to today's podcast. I planned to talk about the exclusion of the immigrant population from 1880-1920 and then comparing that to current day. In that earlier time period there was a large movement of Chinese immigrants to the United States, and I plan to talk a lot about the inferiority that was claimed to be economically corrupting American society when in reference to Chinese immigrants. (“Chapter 19 ”, Joseph L. Locke and Ben Wright, The American Yawp: A Massively Collaborative Open U.S. History Textbook, Volume 2: Since 1877, (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2023))

 However, the immigrant population was also crucial to the economic and industrialization of cities, as we had discussed in the past and class a week two. This led to the introduction of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and I am going to discuss the exclusion of Chinese immigrants in conjunction with the recent signing of executive order by Donald Trump to effectively end all immigration of the US southern border. I hope to broaden the understanding of the Chinese exclusion act and the role of immigrants in America through primary source analysis, such as Mary tape Protests Chinese segregation ( “Mary Tape Protests Chinese Segregation, April 16, 1885,” Mary Tape, Available online via California Digital Newspaper Collection.) I plan to focus on it through the lens of newspaper and written letter primary sources and through um highlighting how immigrants have historically faced ostracism rather than being given resources to rebuild the new country. I hope to prove the importance of immigrant populations and their contribution to society uplifting the culture and growth of America.

Podcast 

Welcome back to the podcast. This is a dive into the treatment of immigrant populations so it's no secret that America has a history of racism and exclusionary behavior, and I plan to discuss the national mood and political dynamic of the Gilded Age. That led to this economic depression and competition for jobs that fueled the anti Chinese sentiment in the United States, and especially labor unions in the West,  those advocated as well for the Chinese exclusion.  (“Chapter 18 ” , Joseph L. Locke and Ben Wright, The American Yawp: A Massively Collaborative Open U.S. History Textbook, Volume 2: Since 1877, (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2023)

It's no surprise that America has a history of racism and exclusionary behavior and I plan to discuss the national mood and political dynamics of the gilded age and the role of economic depression and competition for jobs, feeling anti chinese sentiment.  especially how labor unions, especially in the West, played a role in advocating for exclusion. The primary source that why Chinese should be excluded by James D. Phelan, written in 1901, states “The Chinese by putting their vastly inferior civilization and competition with our own and to destroy the population on whom the perpetuity of free government depends”(James D. Phelan, Why The Chinese Should Be Excluded, 1901” The North American Review 173 , The American Yawp Reader.) Then finally states “that the Chinese may be good laborers, but they are not good citizens. They may in small numbers benefit individual employers, but breed with the germs of a national disease which spreads as they spread and grows as they grow.”(James D. Phelan, Why The Chinese Should Be Excluded, 1901” The North American Review 173 , The American Yawp Reader.)

 James D. Phelan was , the writer of that , was the mayor of San Francisco at the time, and his whole argument was that the Chinese immigrants had economic effects which led to the Chinese exclusion act being unilaterally passed in Congress in 1882.

The Chinese exclusion act at its core made the Chinese the first immigrant group to be subject to admission restrictions on the basis of race and became the first illegal immigrants in the United States. Politicians, such as James H. Johnson, who voted in Congress, began to make racist claims such as quote that, “the white man is superior to the Chinaman and that our country will be better off, peopled entirely with our own kind and if people mix with inferior and degraded race.” (Zhang, Wenxian. “Standing Up Against Racial Discrimination: Progressive Americans and the Chinese Exclusion Act in the Late Nineteenth Century.” Phylon (1960-) 56, no. 1 (2019): 8–32. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26743829.)

The treatment of Chinese immigrants in the 1920s is extremely similar to that of current Chinese immigrants, and especially with the general immigration act of 1891 , which is what congress used as the precedent for the Chinese exclusion, which denied judicial review in all immigrant hearings. The Supreme Court soon confirmed that the plenary power doctrine applied to all aliens coming to the United States.( Dr. Andrew Maginn, “Week 2 Lecture,” History 202: History of the United States II, (Class Lecture, Sewanee: The University of the South. Sewanee, Tennessee, January 22, 2025.)

Despite the majority of the Chinese laborers working in manual labor, there were two that became naturalized citizens and started advocacy work throughout California and then to the rest of the states and this was all in the early 19th century when it was extremely ground upon to do so. um these were Wong Ching Foo and Yan Phou Lee defended the Chinese immigrants could be law abiding and good mannered people and declared that character and fitness should be the only requirement of those who were desiring to become citizens of the American  Republic.(Zhang, Wenxian. “Standing Up Against Racial Discrimination: Progressive Americans and the Chinese Exclusion Act in the Late Nineteenth Century.” Phylon (1960-) 56, no. 1 (2019): 8–32. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26743829.) This concludes that truly the Chinese exclusion was about xenophobia and exclusion and racism rather than the actual criteria or character of the Chinese people, it was more for a sense of excluding the Chinese into better the United States. because they're not an inferior population, they're just it was a new competition that was being bred in the United States.

Securing our Borders:

The next question to be asked is what does securing our borders really mean in the Chinese Exclusion act it just stopped all Chinese immigration, but in early January 2025, executive order 14165 entitled securing our borders was signed, and the title is really just a xenophobic attack covered by quote unquote economic concerns. executive the executive order is a plan to end all immigration at the northern and southern borders and effectively put a stop on immigration, creating a national prejudice that immigrants that had previously entered the country are quote, unquote less than and do not deserve to be in the United States.(“Securing our Boarders” Federal Register, Accessed February 12, 2025. 

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/30/2025-02015/securing-our-border.)  Donald Trump in this news clip that I'm gonna insert right here, establishes the current immigration prejudice towards immigrants that they are quote unquote poisoning our country.

Clip 

“Nobody  has any idea where these people are coming from? And we know they come from prisons, we know they come from mental institutions, insane asylums, we know they're terrorists.

Nobody has ever seen anything like we're witnessing right now. It is a very sad thing for our country. It's poisoning the blood of our country. It's so bad. And people are coming in with diseases. People are coming in with every possible thing that you can have.”(“Fury as Donald Trump says immigrants ‘poison blood’ of US” (The Telegraph) Oct 6 , 2023, 0-0:31, https://youtu.be/L-xm_9zjNwI?si=PuHBCiKR49Bx1GGH)

Notice that this prejudiced language is extremely similar to the mayor California James P. Phelan in why the Chinese should be excluded and then quote unquote “poisoning our population “or in the way that puts it breeding the germs of a national disease.

Despite whether these claims are defensible or not these sentiments speaks to the fact that they are people view jobs of the scarce resource in the United States and favor giving them to US citizens against non- US citizens. It's more appealing to a larger demographic to say that in US citizens first, however, in the United States, everyone should have equal opportunity, which is not what securing our border executive order stands for.

Uplifting Immigrant voices :

Now the final argument is why should we emphasize immigrant voices. In a primary service document titled meritate protest Chinese segregation, it's a mother talking about why. Her daughter she'd be allowed to go to school and not face discrimination in a good quote that I wanted to use is Mary Tape says, “ I see that you're going to make all sorts of excuses to keep my child out of public schools. Dear sirs, will you please tell me? Is it a disgrace to be born Chinese didn't God make us all,”  and then later on she says, “just because she is descended of Chinese parents, I guess she's more of an American than a good many of you that is going to prevent her from becoming educated.” (“Mary Tape Protests Chinese Segregation, April 16, 1885,” Mary Tape, Available online via California Digital Newspaper Collection.) 

The first Chinese men to be naturalized citizens were Wong (Ching Foo) and Yan Phou Lee, who were passionately advocating for Chinese naturalization, as I mentioned earlier in the podcast, and Wong also established America's first association of Chinese voters and later the Chinese equal Rights League, and as its president, Wong testified in front of a congressional committee to oppose the renewal of the Chinese exclusion act. and then when the Guery act passed, which is what upheld the Chinese exclusion act, the league then mobilized tens of thousands of voters. (Zhang, Wenxian. “Standing Up Against Racial Discrimination: Progressive Americans and the Chinese Exclusion Act in the Late Nineteenth Century.” Phylon (1960-) 56, no. 1 (2019): 8–32. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26743829.) 

 When you allow these immigrant voices to be heard, they uplift the minority community in the US that is supposed to be upholding liberty and justice for all, not just liberty and justice for white European individuals who were born in the United States.

The legislative debate surrounding the Chinese exclusion act of 1882 suggests that the question of inclusion and exclusion in American history have also often not been or dichotomies of excluded or included or citizen are not citizen, but rather on the basis of a community of political thoughts than has been defined by a culture, and then throughout history, we've seen more cohesion through the minority of groups and perceived by the minority and rather relatively more or less aligned with norms, so it's more a question of what voices do we want to be heard?  (“Trump and Chinese Exclusion: Contemporary Parallels with Legislative Debates over the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.” Tennessee Law Review 84 (3) 681–730. https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=88614190-7a00-32ee-b 35c-56c0cda916ec.)

And oftentimes in America it is not minorities and immigrants. And Donald Trump is dead set on making sure that immigrant voices are not upolled. if Donald Trump is dead set to make sure that immigrant voices are not heard in America when they have been the foundation of American economies and jobs for years, 

Just to quickly recap, the Trump administration has passed anti-immigration legislation that it's very, very similar to the Chinese exclusion act of 1882. If you wish to hear more about this, I'm continuing listening for a more historical analysis. podcast, and thank you for listening.