A Brief History of American Propaganda Against 'Foreign Invaders'
The Department of Homeland Security's recent campaign is just the latest chapter.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted a graphic on June 11 depicting Uncle Sam nailing up a poster that reads, "Help your country…and yourself…." Underneath the poster is the command "Report all foreign invaders," followed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement hotline.
The new campaign is not the first to use national pride and patriotism to promote anti-immigrant sentiment. The DHS graphic joins a long line of anti-immigration propaganda present throughout America's history of border policy changes and cultural acceptance of migrants.
Irish and German Voters Stealing an Election
A political cartoon published in the 1850s depicts Irish and German voters stealing a ballot box in a chaotic scene at the election polls. Likely by political cartoonist John H. Goater, the cartoon represents the sentiment at the time that immigrant voters had too much political power.
'The Chinese Must Go'
In an 1886 advertisement for Magic Washer laundry detergent, manufactured by Geo. Dee of Dixon, Illinois, Uncle Sam is shown kicking a caricature of a Chinese migrant off a cliff to join other migrants as they run to the ocean, where a Chinese ship is sailing. The ad reads, "The Chinese must go." At the time, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which created a 10-year ban on laborers from China, was very popular among workers who feared Chinese laborers would undercut wages.
The Stranger at Our Gate
Published in 1896, this cartoon depicts Uncle Sam holding his nose while begrudgingly allowing a traveler to enter the United States. The traveler is depicted as bringing with him "sabbath desecration," "superstition," "poverty," "disease," "infidelity," "intemperance," and "anarchy." The bottom of the cartoon reads:
Emigrant.—May I come in?
Uncle Sam.—I 'spose you can; there's no law to keep you out.
The Unrestricted Dumping-Ground
The satirical magazine Judge published this cartoon in 1903. It shows Uncle Sam holding an American flag while watching "the slums of Europe" be dumped in the Atlantic Ocean. Rat-human hybrids from Italy labeled as "socialists," "mafia," and "anarchists" swim to shore carrying weapons labeled with "murder" and "assassination." Meanwhile, Uncle Sam thinks of President William McKinley, whose assassination in 1901 by anarchist Leon Czolgosz led to the passage of the Immigration Act of 1903 and the extreme vetting of immigrants. (Czolgosz was born in Detroit, Michigan, to parents who had migrated from Poland.)
'The Only Way To Handle It'
Published in 1921, a political cartoon portrays Uncle Sam enforcing a 3 percent limit on European immigrants entering the U.S., with the phrase "The only way to handle it" printed below. The cartoon is a reference to the Emergency Quota Act, which allowed only 3 percent of the foreign countries' total 1910 census populations to immigrate to America.
While the Trump administration's immigration crackdown has raised constitutional and due process concerns, it is, unfortunately, just the latest chapter in America's on-again, off-again relationship with migrants. President Donald Trump is not the first president, nor will he be the last, to stoke the flames of out-group fear while expanding government power.
