Donald Trump has long explicitly challenged a foundational myth of American identity: the idea of the United States as a nation of immigrants that welcomes the world’s “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

唐纳德·特朗普长期以来一直明确挑战美国身份认同的基本神话：美国是移民国家，欢迎全世界“渴望自由呼吸的受压迫民众”。

Instead of embracing the narrative of a country shaped by immigration, the “again” in Mr. Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again” is often understood as a call to return to an imagined past when native-born white citizens lived safely and prospered without foreign-born people. On Monday in his second Inaugural Address, he vowed that America’s “safety will be restored” as his administration would rid the country of “dangerous criminals, many from prisons and mental institutions that have illegally entered our country from all over the world.” His vision includes a locked-down border, a promise to end birthright citizenship and the mass expulsion of immigrants.

特朗普的口号“恢复美国伟大荣光”中的“恢复”常被理解为呼吁回到一个想象中的过去——那个本土白人公民安全、繁荣地生活，没有外来移民的时代，而不是接受移民塑造了这个国家的叙事。周一，在第二次就职的演说中，特朗普誓言要“恢复安全”，因为他的政府将清除“危险的罪犯，其中许多来自监狱和精神病院，他们从世界各地非法进入我们的国家”。他的愿景包括封锁边境、承诺终止出生公民权，以及大规模驱逐移民。

Neither Mr. Trump’s exclusionary historical vision of a safe nation with no immigrants nor the romanticized idea of a welcoming America reflects the nation’s reality. The United States is a nation to which immigrants have come time and time again, despite systemic racism and restrictive policies. And yet it is not immigrants’ presence in the United States but the exclusionary measures introduced against them that have eroded the rights and safety of both immigrants and American citizens.

不管是特朗普对一个没有移民的安全国家的排外历史观，还是关于一个欢迎移民的美国的浪漫化设想，它们都没有反映美国的现实。尽管存在系统性的种族主义和限制性政策，美国一直是一个移民一次又一次涌入的国家。事实上，真正侵蚀移民和美国公民的权利与安全的并不是移民在美国的存在，而是针对他们所采取的排外措施。

Until the 1870s, there were no federal laws enforced to restrict immigration. But rising unemployment in California during that decade led white workers to accuse Chinese immigrants of stealing jobs, depressing wages and bringing women to the United States for prostitution. In 1875, Congress passed the Page Act to curtail Chinese migration and went even further in 1882, passing the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned most Chinese immigrants. These laws, alongside the racist sentiments that led to their passage, effectively legitimized vigilante violence against Chinese communities, including the Wyoming Territory’s Rock Springs Massacre of 1885, during which white miners killed 28 Chinese workers, injured 15 more and destroyed the local Chinatown.

19世纪70年代之前，美国没有实施限制移民的联邦法律。但在那十年间，加利福尼亚州失业率不断上升，导致白人工人指责中国移民抢走工作、压低工资并将妇女带到美国卖淫。1875年，美国国会通过了《佩奇法案》来限制华人移民，1882年更进一步，通过了《排华法案》，禁止大多数华人移民。这些法律以及导致其通过的种族主义情绪实际上使针对华人社区的私刑暴力合法化，包括1885年怀俄明州石泉地区的大屠杀，在这次大屠杀中，白人矿工杀害了28名华工，打伤15人，并摧毁了当地的唐人街。

The Chinese Exclusion Act threatened the very foundation of American citizenship as defined by the 14th Amendment, which establishes that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” are citizens. Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco in 1873 to Chinese parents. After traveling to China in 1894, border officials barred him from entering the United States, insisting he was not a citizen. The case made its way to the Supreme Court, which ruled in United States v. Wong Kim Ark that the Constitution granted birthright citizenship to all individuals born on U.S. soil, regardless of parental origin.

《排华法案》威胁到了第14条修正案所定义的美国公民身份的根本基础，该修正案规定“所有在美国出生或归化的人”都是公民。黄金德于1873年出生在旧金山，父母都是中国人。1894年前往中国后，边境官员禁止他进入美国，坚称他不是美国公民。最高法院在“美国诉黄金德”一案中裁定，宪法赋予所有在美国土地上出生的人与生俱来的公民权，无论其父母来自何方。

Citizenship is not conditional. After all, if citizenship can be challenged based on race, ancestry or political will, then no one’s status is truly secure. Yet this is exactly what Mr. Trump’s promise to end birthright citizenship would do.

公民身份不是有条件的。毕竟，如果公民身份可以因种族、血统或政治意愿而受到挑战，那么没有人的身份是真正安全的。然而，这正是特朗普承诺终止出生公民权会带来的后果。

Banning Chinese immigration laid the groundwork for further restrictions. At the end of the 19th century, increasing numbers of Eastern and Southern Europeans began to arrive in the United States. American policymakers worried that these new arrivals, who were deemed racially inferior, would blemish the nation’s racial stock. To address these concerns, Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1924, which introduced national origin quotas that gave preference to Northern and Western Europeans and almost completely barred Asians from entering.

禁止华人移民为进一步的限制奠定了基础。19世纪末，越来越多的东欧和南欧人开始来到美国。美国决策者担心，这些被视为种族劣等的新移民会玷污国家的种族血统。为了消除这些担忧，国会通过了1924年的《移民法》，该法引入了民族血统配额，优先考虑北欧人和西欧人，几乎完全禁止亚洲人入境。

The Great Depression led to further anti-immigrant measures. Mexican migrants became scapegoats for the nation’s economic struggles. Throughout the Southwest and Midwest, officials apprehended people of Mexican descent indiscriminately, including legal residents and U.S. citizens, and forced them onto trucks, buses or trains bound for Mexico. As many as two million people were expelled; approximately 60 percent are believed to have been citizens.

大萧条导致了进一步的反移民措施。墨西哥移民成了国家经济困境的替罪羊。在整个西南部和中西部地区，官员们无差别地逮捕墨西哥后裔，包括合法居民和美国公民，强迫他们登上开往墨西哥的卡车、大巴或火车。多达200万人被驱逐；据信其中约60%是公民。

When Hitler’s armies swept across Eastern and Western Europe, the doors to the United States remained largely closed. Jews fleeing persecution were caught in a vise: a restrictive quota system that severely limited immigration from the most affected countries, an isolationist climate that offered no political will to aid refugees and deep-seated antisemitism in Congress and the State Department.

当希特勒的军队横扫东欧和西欧时，通往美国的大门仍然紧闭。逃离迫害的犹太人陷入了困境：限制性配额制度严重限制了来自受影响最严重国家的移民，孤立主义的氛围没有为难民提供援助的政治意愿，国会和国务院的反犹太主义根深蒂固。

Indeed, the phrase “a nation of immigrants” did not gain widespread recognition until the 1960s, after John F. Kennedy’s book by that title argued that the United States benefited from its diverse origins. The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act ended the system of national origin quotas, but it also introduced other restrictive measures, like quotas for Western Hemisphere countries for the first time. The law curbed Mexicans’ possibility to migrate legally even as the demand for their labor persisted, ultimately contributing to the rise of unauthorized migration.

事实上，直到20世纪60年代，“移民国家”一词才得到广泛认可，当时约翰·F·肯尼迪在其同名著作中提出，美国得益于其人民多样化的起源。1965年的《移民和国籍法》结束了原籍配额制度，但也引入了其他限制性措施，如首次对西半球国家实行配额。该法限制了墨西哥人合法移民的可能性，即使对其劳动力的需求依然存在，最终导致了非法移民的增加。

The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 had a similar dual impact. It legalized the status of approximately three million undocumented immigrants, granting them protection from deportation, allowing them to work legally and offering a path to citizenship. Legalization profoundly changed the lives of immigrants and their families, many of which already included U.S. citizens. Living without papers meant living in constant fear, unable to visit family abroad or demand higher wages without risking deportation.

1986年的《移民改革与管制法》也产生了类似的双重影响。该法案使大约300万无证移民的身份合法化，使他们免于被驱逐出境，允许他们合法工作，并为他们提供了获得公民身份的途径。合法化深刻地改变了移民及其家人的生活，其中许多人已经是美国公民。没有证件的生活意味着时刻生活在恐惧之中，不能出国探亲或要求更高的工资，否则就有可能被驱逐出境。

Yet this legislation also provided for increased resources to expand the Border Patrol, and immigrants continued to enter the United States without papers. To evade intensified border controls, many took increasingly hazardous routes, such as through the Arizona desert, where dehydration, rattlesnakes and extreme temperatures routinely claimed lives. By the early 2000s, deaths at the border sometimes exceeded one per day.

但这项立法也为扩大边境巡逻队提供了更多的资源，移民也继续在没有证件的情况下进入美国。为了逃避强化的边境管制，许多人选择了越来越危险的路线，例如穿过亚利桑那州的沙漠，在那里，脱水、响尾蛇和极端天气经常夺走生命。到本世纪初，边境死亡人数有时超过每天一人。

The expansion of the Border Patrol also infringed on the rights of U.S. citizens. Within 100 miles of the border, officials routinely conduct warrantless searches, often engaging in racial profiling by targeting individuals perceived as foreign. These actions violate Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

边境巡逻队的扩张也侵犯了美国公民的权利。在边境160多公里范围内，官员们常常进行没有搜查令的检查，且通常通过种族定性来针对那些被视为外国人的人。这些行为违反了《宪法第四修正案》关于禁止无理搜查和扣押的规定。

Deportations, like those promised by the new administration, also perpetuate the practice of family separation, regularly harming U.S. citizen children whose parents are undocumented. Deported parents with children who are U.S. citizens sometimes choose to leave them in America with family or friends. Others take their children with them, though many have never lived outside the country and don’t know any language other than English. Both possibilities deprive citizens of their rights, safety and stability.

像新政府所承诺的驱逐行动也将延续家庭分离的做法，常常伤害到那些父母是无证移民的美国公民儿童。被驱逐的父母如果子女是美国公民，有时会选择把他们留在美国的家人或朋友身边。还有一些父母会带着孩子一起走，尽管许多孩子从未在国外生活过，也不懂英语以外的任何语言。这两种可能性都剥夺了公民的权利、安全和稳定。

Mr. Trump’s promised anti-immigrant measures are an escalation of former policies of exclusion. He has vowed to send troops to the southern border, halt all unauthorized entries, end the practice known as catch and release (in which apprehended migrants are discharged from Department of Homeland Security custody while their cases are pending) and reinstate the policy of forcing asylum seekers to apply from and wait in Mexico. He has pledged that he will conduct the “largest deportation operation in American history.”

特朗普承诺的反移民措施是以前排外政策的升级。他誓言要向南部边境派遣军队，停止所有未经许可的入境，结束被称为“抓了又放”的做法（在这种做法下，被抓获的移民在案件待审期间会被国土安全部释放），并恢复强迫寻求庇护者从墨西哥申请并在墨西哥等待的政策。他承诺将开展“美国历史上最大规模的驱逐行动”。

These policies have historical precedents, but we have also seen an alternative path. The United States has repeatedly reformed its immigration laws — overturning Chinese exclusion, dismantling its racist quota system, offering legal status for millions of people under the reforms of the 1980s. Rather than double down on expulsions, the United States could increase the number of people who may enter legally, grant amnesty to undocumented residents and address the root causes of migration in origin countries. The promise of a nation of immigrants might yet be fulfilled. A welcoming America would make the country safer, stronger, and more just — protecting everyone’s rights and turning inclusion into a source of security for all.

这些政策有历史先例，但我们也看到过另一条道路。美国曾多次改革其移民法——推翻排华政策，废除种族主义配额制度，在20世纪80年代的改革中为数百万人提供合法身份。美国可以增加合法入境的人数，大赦无证居民，并解决原籍国移民问题的根源，而不是加倍努力驱逐。移民之国的承诺或许还可以实现。一个热情好客的美国将使国家更安全、更强大、更公正——保护每个人的权利，将包容变成所有人的安全之源。