Jewish senator says Trump’s immigration policy re-created ‘paper wall’ that kept Jews out of US in 1930s
(JTA) — Sen. Ron Wyden, a son of Jewish parents who escaped Nazi Germany for the United States, compared President Donald Trump’s immigration policy to that of the restrictive U.S. policy in the 1930s.
During that era, many Jewish immigrants trying to flee Germany were blocked from coming to America.
“The president has rebuilt the infamous paper wall like that of the 1930s that kept too many Jews out of the United States, trapping them within the murderous regime of Nazi Germany,” Wyden, a 71-year-old Oregon Democrat, said Tuesday in a speech on the Senate floor.
“In 2020, caring people looked back and recognized that paper wall and our failure to save more people from execution at the hands of the Nazis. It was a staggering humanitarian disaster, a real stain on American history.”
Trump’s immigration policies, spearheaded by Jewish adviser Stephen Miller, include a ban on travelers and immigrants from over a dozen Muslim-majority countries and a “zero tolerance” approach to migrants who tried to cross the southern border, which led to hundreds of family separations.
Watch the full speech here or read the transcript here.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30