The Rise and Triumph of the Anti-immigrant Movement with Trump (1965-2018)

• In Event: 4412 - Section on Latino/a Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 05. Shifts in Support and in the Policing of Latina/o/xs in the United States

Abstract

In the last 50 years the United States’ Modern Anti-Immigrant Movement has evolved and developed corresponding with global ideological, economic and structural trends, giving rise to conservative anti-immigrant political leaders such as Donald Trump. Where and how does Trump connect with the Anti-Immigrant Movement? To answer this, this essay builds onto a 19-year longitudinal ethnographic study on the U.S. Anti-Immigrant Movement. Thirty formal long interviews were conducted with leading anti-immigrant activists from 1999-2017; seventeen additional interviews were conducted with key pro-immigrant activists in 2016-2017. Findings demonstrate the evolution of the anti-immigrant movement as it responded to four key global socio-historical moments leading up to the present: 1960’s/1970’s Cold War ideology that mixed with environmentalism; 1980’s/1990’s global restructuring; the 2001 September 11th attacks; 2000’s/2010’s resurgence in overt racism. Interviews conducted over a decade before Trump’s election to the Presidency demonstrate what could be characterized as an astounding similarity in discourse, political actions and alliances between the anti-immigrant movement and Trump. The popularity and success of the anti-immigrant movement, especially in 1994 California with Proposition 187 seems to have been replicated at the nationwide level with Trump’s successful bid for the Presidency in 2016 using an anti-immigrant and specifically an anti-Mexican platform.

Author

• Carina A. Bandhauer, Western Connecticut State University