Post by @nikanikaroo

This comeback is only seven words, and somehow it opens approximately 400 years of American history. 😂 Because before we start romanticizing our ancestors as people who all politely arrived with modern visas, completed the proper paperwork and waited patiently for USCIS approval… That is not how American immigration history worked. For much of the 19th century, the United States didn’t even have the federal immigration system we recognize today. Millions of Europeans came seeking jobs, land, safety, religious freedom and economic opportunity. Nearly 12 million immigrants arrived between 1870 and 1900 alone. And sometimes the government didn’t merely allow newcomers to stay. It actively encouraged them. Under the Homestead Act, citizens and people intending to become citizens—including newly arrived immigrants—could claim up to 160 acres of public land for a small filing fee if they lived on and improved it. Ultimately, about 270 million acres were distributed under the program. There is, of course, a much darker chapter underneath that story: much of America’s expansion occurred through the displacement and dispossession of Indigenous peoples. Even the National Archives notes that federal land policy and federal Indian policy cannot really be separated. And DACA—the hashtag in the original post—isn’t about adults simply deciding to wander into America and “demand free stuff.” DACA applies to certain people who were brought to the United States as children, including a requirement that they arrived before age 16, and qualifying recipients may receive temporary protection from removal and work authorization. We absolutely can debate immigration policy. Borders. Visas. Asylum. Enforcement. Legal pathways. All of it. But perhaps we could conduct that debate with just a tiny bit of historical humility. Because “Why not? Your ancestors did it” may be an oversimplification… …but “my family came the right way” gets considerably more complicated when you ask: Right way according to the immigration laws of WHICH century? 👀 #ImmigrationHistory #DACA #AmericanHistory #ImmigrationReform #PoliticalSatire