Jewish senator says Trump’s immigration policy re-created ‘paper wall’ that kept Jews out of US in 1930s
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. Image by Getty
(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.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
