ICE hasm't done much for US Citizens. Well, they have sparked more conversations on what is right and what is wrong, albeit much is misinformation. Many who support the efforts of ICE insist that their grandparents came into this country "the right way" and why don't the undocumented do the same. Well, let's compare the difference between then and now.
In 1928, the U.S. immigration
system was radically simpler. Your grandparents arrived in an era when:
- There was no visa system like
today.
- There were no numerical caps for Europeans.
- There was no asylum system at
all.
- There were no work authorization
rules.
- There were no multi‑year
court backlogs.
- There were no sponsors required.
- There were no bars on public
benefits.
- There was no credible fear
screening.
If you could get on a ship, pass a
basic health inspection, and weren’t excluded for a narrow list of reasons
(like being labeled “feebleminded” or having certain diseases), you were
admitted.
That was the “legal process.” It
was simple because the law was simple.
The system was explicitly designed
to favor Europeans This isn’t an opinion — it’s the structure of the laws at
the time. From the 1920s through the 1960s, U.S. immigration law:
- set huge quotas for Northern and
Western Europe
- set tiny quotas for Southern and
Eastern Europe
- set zero quotas for most of Asia
- barred most non‑white
immigrants entirely
Germany, the UK, Ireland, and
Scandinavia had the largest quotas. People
from those countries could immigrate in large numbers with minimal barriers.
So yes — it was simpler for people
from “white” countries because the law was written to make it simple for them.
There was no such thing as
“waiting in line” for asylum Asylum didn’t exist as a legal
category until 1980. Your grandparents didn’t “wait in line” for asylum. They didn’t need to prove persecution. They
didn’t need to hire lawyers. They didn’t
need to attend court hearings. They
didn’t need to wait years for a decision.
They simply arrived and were processed.
Today’s asylum seekers are
navigating a system that didn’t exist in your grandparents’ time.
The U.S. closed the “easy”
immigration pathways in the mid‑20th century**
Between 1924 and 1965, Congress
passed laws that:
- imposed strict quotas
- restricted immigration from most
of the world
- created racialized
categories
- limited who could enter
legally
By 1965, the U.S. replaced the old
quota system with a new one based on:
- family ties
- employment categories
- country caps
This system is still in place
today — and it’s extremely restrictive.
For many people today, there is no
legal line to get into.
Today’s asylum seekers are using
the only legal pathway available to them
When people say, “They should come
legally like our grandparents did,” they’re imagining a system that no longer
exists.
Today:
- There is no Ellis Island.
- There is no “show up and be
admitted.”
- There is no broad European‑style
quota.
- There is no simple path for low‑income
migrants.
- There is no visa category for
“fleeing danger but not yet proven.”
For many modern migrants, asylum
is the **only** legal doorway left.
And it is a doorway Congress
created on purpose — to prevent the U.S. from turning away people fleeing
persecution, as it did in the 1930s and 1940s.
