For the Nation's Birthday, Making It Harder to Become an American(newyorker.com)
newyorker.com
For the Nation's Birthday, Making It Harder to Become an American
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/06/15/for-the-nations-birthday-making-it-harder-to-become-an-american
4 comments
Why was this interesting beyond historical trivia?
Edit: actually nah, I’m not gonna wait for you to walk into this conclusion.
You put a single presidents name down for these bans with Biden, which was in response to a global pandemic where every country was instituting travel restrictionsz
But for trumps explicitly ideological Muslim ban you merely put
> 2017–2020 — travel bans, refugee reductions, asylum restrictions, public-charge expansion.
I am going to make the claim that you are pushing propaganda. If you had included the presidents for every section I wouldn’t think so.
Edit: actually nah, I’m not gonna wait for you to walk into this conclusion.
You put a single presidents name down for these bans with Biden, which was in response to a global pandemic where every country was instituting travel restrictionsz
But for trumps explicitly ideological Muslim ban you merely put
> 2017–2020 — travel bans, refugee reductions, asylum restrictions, public-charge expansion.
I am going to make the claim that you are pushing propaganda. If you had included the presidents for every section I wouldn’t think so.
The whole period of Obama's presidency was also skipped.
The largest Muslim country in the world is Indonesia, it's quite odd that it wasn't included in Trump's Muslim ban. Obama's administration was the one that made the list of the seven countries that were banned before Trump even became president.
The largest Muslim country in the world is Indonesia, it's quite odd that it wasn't included in Trump's Muslim ban. Obama's administration was the one that made the list of the seven countries that were banned before Trump even became president.
You won’t find me arguing against the fact that Trump haphazardly implemented his ideas and was incompetent. If you’re trying to argue it wasn’t a Muslim ban because Indonesia wasn’t in it, then I’ll just have to point you to Trump himself calling for a ban on Muslims and then implementing a ban on travelers from countries that were all Muslim.
All periods in U.S. history when immigration has been reduced or halted:
The restriction/reduction periods were:
1790s — racialized naturalization limits and alien deportation power.
1875–1882 — first federal exclusion laws.
1882–1943 — Chinese exclusion.
1885–1907 — contract labor, pauper, disease, anarchist, and morality exclusions.
1907–1924 — Japanese and broader Asian restrictions.
1917–1965 — literacy test, Asiatic Barred Zone, national-origins quotas.
1929–1945 — Depression-era administrative restriction and Mexican repatriation.
1940s–1952 — wartime and Cold War ideological/security restrictions.
1952–1965 — McCarran-Walter quota/security regime.
1965–1978 — new worldwide and hemispheric caps despite ending national-origin discrimination.
1980s — refugee ceilings, employer sanctions, unauthorized-labor enforcement.
1990s — expanded detention, deportation, benefit restrictions, asylum limits.
2001–2008 — post-9/11 security restrictions.
2017–2020 — travel bans, refugee reductions, asylum restrictions, public-charge expansion.
2020–2023 — COVID/Title 42 and visa-entry restrictions.
2024 — Biden southern-border asylum/entry restrictions.
2025–2026 — refugee-admissions suspension and expanded travel/visa restrictions.