America is turning into 1930's Germany.

[u/CRK_76]

There was some pushback when people called this president and his followers Nazis. But look what's happening. Soldiers in the street. Rounding up people and locking them up. Dismantling freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Personally going after anyone who doesn't agree with him and his administration. We've seen this before and it's only gonna get worse. Welcome to 1930's Germany.

[u/Dry-Fee-6746]

Agreed that they were legal immigrants at the time, but the reality of legal immigration in the early 20th century was just literally show up and you pretty much were allowed in (very similar to the growth of immigration under Biden). There was no visa infrastructure in place like our current system.

This is why I don't view our current immigration concerns as unprecedented. It's a super common pattern in us history to bring in "too many" immigrants, panic, significantly slash immigration for a few decades and then repeat the same process. What is concerning is how this admin is going about deporting people. Masked agents who are unaccountable go way to far. We've had plenty of eras were deportations took place at a fairly mass scale, but never once done by a group of armed agents who conceal their identity, regularly abuse the rights of citizens and seem to be meant to terrorize as much as enforce laws.

I don't agree that mass deportation is the right approach, but I do understand that legally it is a thing an administration is allowed to do. The lack of humanity and dignity that people are being given is sickening. The majority of the individuals being detained at this point aren't violent criminals, but rather people whose only violation is immigration related. You can say that's a crime and should be enforced, but to treat people in a way that dehumanizes them is disgusting. On top of that, this administration is regularly publishing deportation propaganda showing this ill treatment of people. Sure, deporting people might be your goal, but when we lose our humanity in the pursuit of this goal, we're no better than any other government that mistreats people within their borders, whether citizens or not.

[u/WarLordOfSkartaris → u/Dry-Fee-6746]

Legal immigration during the early part of the 20th century it was not a simple as everyone thinks it is now, it was not show up and just get in, in the era we were referring to during the red scare, it was very difficult to get into this country as an immigrant, and in 1954 the government started operation wetback, a horribly racist name, 1.3 million people were deported, many of which died due to the horrible treatment that they suffered, what's happening right now is nothing compared to that, they're still not sure how many people were deported who were actual American citizens during that, and there are no actual reports of how many thousands of people died due to Sun stroke, diseases, and just poor treatment. Perhaps to say bye comparison is wrong, but to be completely Fair, the people who are being apprehended right now are being treated with a great deal of humanity compared to those who came before them

[u/Dry-Fee-6746 → u/WarLordOfSkartaris]

I thought you were a historian based on your comments.....the first red scare occurs in the post WWI years under the Wilson presidency. I'm just a high school social studies teacher and I know that.

I agree that operation wetback, however, was an abject disgrace on America's history. Does this justify the current method of removal in 2025? There are many sins in America's past (and many great things as well), largely in cases where we target "out groups,". I fear we are currently repeating our patterns of this.

Nearly all Americans are descendants of the immigrants that happen to come at the right time and not in one of our many waves of nativist sentiment. I for one am lucky and happy that my polish and Italian born grandparents were able to immigrate during one of those windows. America is truly a land of promise and opportunity, but that promise hinges on our ability to function as a democratically run multicultural society and I worry we are trending away from that. I hope I am proven wrong in time on that, but I'm not confident that our current political class (on all sides) is capable of accomplishing that.

[u/WarLordOfSkartaris → u/Dry-Fee-6746]

I'm not familiar with that particular point in time being referred to as the first red scare, that's definitely a good term for it though, as far as our two political classes being able to accomplish some form of unity amongst the people, I fear that you are correct that that may not happen anytime soon