Post by ck4829 on Feb 19, 2017 14:56:19 GMT
'A Cloak for Discrimination': Trump order reminds Asian-Americans of laws against them
President Trump’s controversial immigration order has played out on the national stage with protests, court rulings and now a promise by the president to replace the travel ban. But for Nick Lee, it's personal -- a painful reminder of his family's history.
Lee's grandfather was separated for 16 years from his wife and never got to see his first child before she died -- all because of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first major U.S. law restricting who could come into the country.
The 1882 law -- followed by other exclusion acts that stayed in force for six decades -- was born amid a wave of fear that Chinese workers who had come during the Gold Rush and helped build the United States’ railroads were competing with other Americans for jobs and lowering wages.
"They used to say that the Chinese are outsiders, and they couldn’t mix with our society, just like what they’re saying about Muslims now,” said Lee, who works for OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization.
abcnews.go.com/Politics/cloak-discrimination-trump-order-reminds-asian-americans-laws/story?id=45243415
President Trump’s controversial immigration order has played out on the national stage with protests, court rulings and now a promise by the president to replace the travel ban. But for Nick Lee, it's personal -- a painful reminder of his family's history.
Lee's grandfather was separated for 16 years from his wife and never got to see his first child before she died -- all because of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first major U.S. law restricting who could come into the country.
The 1882 law -- followed by other exclusion acts that stayed in force for six decades -- was born amid a wave of fear that Chinese workers who had come during the Gold Rush and helped build the United States’ railroads were competing with other Americans for jobs and lowering wages.
"They used to say that the Chinese are outsiders, and they couldn’t mix with our society, just like what they’re saying about Muslims now,” said Lee, who works for OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization.
abcnews.go.com/Politics/cloak-discrimination-trump-order-reminds-asian-americans-laws/story?id=45243415
