A lot of the dynamic of the american government has been to oppress people of color and immigrants.
the Black Codes of 1865 - early 1866 which authorized state officials to fine black people for vagrancy and hire them out to private employers to satisfy these fines. Some Codes even disallowed black folks from leasing land or taking jobs other than plantation workers or domestic servants
The Jim Crow Laws of the 1890′s which enforced racial segregation in the South
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which banned Chinese immigration into the United States for 10 years and banning Chinese folks already in America from becoming naturalized citizens.
The Indian Peace commission of 1867 which forced the Indian Plains tribes in the West to move to two reservations in the Dakotas and Oklahoma.
These were all laws once. They were all justified enactments.
Someone like Trump doesn’t quite surprise me.
