Where Does Trump’s ‘Invasion’ Rhetoric Come From?
The racist language used by the president—and<sup> </sup>the alleged El Paso shooter—to describe immigrants originated on the West Coast more than a century ago.
If you want to know the roots of the “immigration invasion” rhetoric that President Donald Trump has championed time and again—and which was echoed in the racist manifesto linked to the man held for the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, last weekend—you can find them in the anti-Chinese diatribes that circulated on the West Coast a century and a half ago.
“THE CHINESE INVASION! They Are Coming, 900,000 Strong.” On August 27, 1873, readers of the were greeted with these words, in a notice that demanded, “What are you going to do about it? Nations of the earth take warning.”
