Immigration and National Security: Learning from History to Protect Our Future
In 1923, Adolf Hitler incited the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, an insurrection aimed at overthrowing the Weimar Republic. He was arrested, tried for treason, and sentenced to five years in prison, but served less than a year in relative comfort at Landsberg Prison. During his trial, Hitler used the proceedings as a propaganda platform, positioning himself as a nationalist hero persecuted by a corrupt government.
Hitler framed himself as the champion of the “common man,” railing against elites, cultural “degeneracy,” and the Weimar Republic. He exploited fears of Marxism and Communism, blaming Social Democrats and minorities — especially Jews — for Germany’s economic and societal struggles. His rhetoric, steeped in the “stab-in-the-back” myth, resonated with a populace yearning for national restoration.
Many Germans took the bait. Hitler’s Nazi Party continued to gain traction, until he became Chancellor in 1933. Under the Nazi regime, Hitler privatized state-run industries, securing support from business elites. Trade unions were dismantled, strikes outlawed, and political opponents — including progressives and trade unionists — were imprisoned in concentration camps. Hitler himself amassed immense personal wealth, partially through royalties from Mein Kampf and favorable deals with corporate backers.
Hitler removed the birthright citizenship rights of Jews and started rounding them up for mass deportations for being “illegally” in the country through the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, and propaganda vilified them as dangerous outsiders. Hitler himself did not even have a personal vendetta against the Jewish population, but he knew that large portions of the country did not like them and it was a platform he could campaign under. Deportations escalated into the Holocaust, resulting in the murder of six million Jews and five million others, including Romani people, disabled individuals, and political prisoners.
The Nazis dismantled democratic institutions, silenced opposition, and vilified the media as “enemies of the people” with supposed Marxist sympathies. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels boasted about intimidating the press into compliance, often without the need for direct censorship. The Nazis conducted book burnings targeting literature on liberalism, socialism, LGBTQ+ rights, and progressive ideals. Berlin’s Institute for Sexual Science, a pioneering LGBTQ+ rights organization, was destroyed in 1933, and LGBTQ+ individuals were sent to concentration camps.
The Nazis also saw manhood as under threat by independent women who didn’t rely on men. In 1934, Hitler proclaimed, “A woman’s world is her husband, her family, her children, her house.” Laws that had protected women’s rights were repealed and new laws were introduced to restrict women to the home and in their roles as wives and mothers.
Despite the regime’s atrocities, many Germans either supported it, were complicit, or remained silent out of fear. By the end of Hitler’s reign, World War II had claimed 70–85 million lives, and the Holocaust had left a scar on human history.
As history shows, scapegoating can lead to devastating consequences. This lesson is especially relevant as we navigate current immigration challenges in the United States.
In recent years, and within the last week, immigration policies and enforcement actions have closely matched the beginning steps of what happened in Germany. Mass deportations, expanded detention facilities, and proposals to strip citizenship from naturalized Americans are uncannily similar, questionably legal, and raise questions about justice and due process. In January, President Trump signed executive orders to revoke birthright citizenship for children of immigrants if their parents are not naturalized citizens, violating the 14th Amendment. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has conducted sweeping raids, detaining people en masse — including U.S. citizens and military veterans — before verifying their status, violating the 4th Amendment. Additionally, Trump announced on January 29th, 2025 that he will direct the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security to prepare a “30,000-person migrant facility” at Guantanamo Bay, rather than sending them to their home countries. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a family was detained after they were heard speaking Spanish at a grocery store, only for agents to later discover that they were US citizens from Puerto Rico. More than one political leader has accused immigrants of kidnapping pets for food, which the police confirmed never happened. Alarmingly, a poll revealed that many Americans believed this claim about Haitian immigrants eating pets to be true. Such actions create a climate of fear and distrust, eroding the very principles our nation was built upon.
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
A secure and orderly immigration system is vital for any nation and can be achieved while aligning with America’s founding values of fairness, opportunity, and equality under the law. However, the current approach often relies on divisive rhetoric rather than effective solutions. Simplistic claims blaming immigrants for societal ills ignore their contributions to our economy and communities. Many migrants are fleeing violence and exploitation, seeking safety and opportunity. Historically, immigrants have built businesses, revitalized industries, and strengthened local economies, including agriculture, healthcare, and construction.
While I believe undocumented immigrants should not have free rein, and no one should just have the world at their feet, our current practices raise serious concerns. Raiding workplaces while labeling immigrants as freeloaders seems contradictory. There are far more humane ways to address undocumented immigration, rather than practices such detaining children, separating families, and rescinding protections like DACA.
Mississippi and Missouri have just introduced bills creating a new program called “Illegal Alian Certified Bounty Hunter Program,” offering $1,000 per arrest and sentencing the individuals to life without parole. Florida’s SB 1718, one of the strictest immigration laws in the nation, invalidates driver's licenses from states that do not verify citizenship and imposes harsher penalties for crimes committed by undocumented individuals, doubling the time they spend in jail.
Enhanced sentencing — such as 30 years for aggravated battery instead of 15 — raises questions. If the reason we do not want immigrants here is because they are a cost burden, why are we imprisoning them for life rather than deporting them? Some argue that such measures aim to create a captive immigrant labor force, under the 13th Amendment, as agricultural jobs go unfilled due to mass deportations.
Efforts to deny education and property rights further marginalize immigrant communities. Oklahoma’s State Superintendent has proposed barring undocumented children from public schools, defying the 1982 Supreme Court decision guaranteeing equal access to education. In Florida, laws prevent Chinese nationals from owning land, citing national security concerns. States like Tennessee have proposed differently colored driver’s licenses for immigrants, no matter their status, effectively branding them.
In Texas, SB 4 authorizes state officials to arrest individuals suspected of illegal entry and transport them to ports of entry, bypassing federal oversight. This opens the door to racial profiling. For example, a sheriff in Oregon reported a letter urging residents to write down the license plates of suspected immigrants, specifically targeting school parking lots and churches. These policies create a climate of fear and distrust. It not only stigmatizes immigrants, it has spilled over to U.S. citizens of immigrant descent, including the youngest among us. A 9-year-old U.S. citizen was detained at the border for 30 hours due to racial profiling.
The rise of anti-immigrant sentiment has emboldened extremists. White nationalist Jared Taylor, for example, supports Trump’s policies, claiming they would “slow the dispossession of whites” in America. Such ideologies, rooted in pseudoscience and racial hierarchies, have fueled violence, as seen in the El Paso mass shooting targeting Latinos.
Proposals like placing alligators in the Rio Grande or electrifying border fences, while headline-grabbing, do little to address the real challenges we face. The fentanyl crisis, for example, is often blamed on migrants who are entering on foot, but primarily stems from drugs smuggled through shipping containers — not from those crossing the border.
Historically, the argument that immigrants should “come the right way” ignores the reality of immigration history. Many Americans’ ancestors arrived unannounced at Ellis Island without the extensive vetting processes now demanded. Additionally, most undocumented immigrants today did not cross the border illegally but overstayed their visas. Also, the fact that the app to apply for legal entry was shut down on day one is contradictory to this request. Mass deportations and expanded detention facilities come with immense costs, funded by taxpayer dollars. Instead of spending billions on border walls and detention centers, we could invest in streamlining the legal immigration process, such as increasing the number of work visas and improving application processing times. This would reduce the incentive for illegal crossings while being more cost-effective.
Most reasonable people do not believe that immigrants should come to America and be allowed to commit crimes. That is why both Democrats and Republicans supported the Laken Riley Act, which focuses on deporting immigrants with criminal histories. This reflects a shared understanding that immigration enforcement should prioritize serious offenses, however, this should not be handled at the patrol level, where racial profiling is inevitable. Immigration status can be checked during jail bookings for violent crimes, rather than through broad raids that risk racial profiling.
Regardless of political affiliation, most Americans believe in protecting families, ensuring safety, and upholding fairness under the law. However, current policies that separate children from their parents and punish those fleeing violence contradict those values. Compassionate and rational solutions are urgently needed. Stabilizing regions to prevent displacement, ensuring a fair application process, and addressing the root causes of migration are vital. Punishing children or perpetuating conspiracy theories only deepen divisions.
Even some conservative leaders, like Mitch McConnell, have cautioned against measures that undermine due process and constitutional protections, recognizing that they contradict the values America was built on.
Reasonable immigration policies should focus on solutions that balance security with compassion. Expanding merit-based immigration is one way to attract skilled workers who contribute to innovation and economic growth. Simplifying and modernizing legal pathways would reduce undocumented immigration while upholding America’s tradition as a land of opportunity.
History shows us how dangerous it can be when nations single out vulnerable groups as scapegoats for larger societal issues. Policies that exploit fear to target immigrants risk echoing past mistakes that led to human rights abuses.
We cannot allow fear to define our policies. By embracing compassion and rationality, we can create a future where America remains a land of opportunity and hope for all.
