Martin Luther King Jr. has a famous quote in reference to the nearly 400-year-long genocide of Native Americans from 1492-1891: “Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race.”
Now, the descendants of the people who colonized the United States are referring to undocumented immigrants as inferior. Politicians who want to “limit immigration and push anti-immigrant legislation” use derogatory terms such as “illegal alien” to strip immigrants of their humanity. President Donald J. Trump has also baselessly claimed that “in Springfield, they are eating the dogs. The people that came in, they are eating the cats.”
Most times, people who cross the border without documents come in peace, only wanting to access a higher level of education and/or a greater life for their families. In a survey of immigrants conducted by KFF, results showed that “a majority of immigrants say their financial situation (78%), educational opportunities (79%), employment situation (75%), and safety (65%) are better as a result of moving to the U.S.”
Did the European colonizers come in peace? Absolutely not.
The 400-year decimation of the Native American population was brutal, to say the least, and is not discussed nearly as much as it should be in American education. Before 1492, there were about 10 million pre-Columbian Native Americans in what is now the U.S. By the 1890s, there was a range of only 228,000 to 237,000 who remained.
Before Colombus arrived in American in 1492, 533 years ago, Native Americans had already been living in America for at least 23,000 years and possibly as long as 30,000 years. Yet somehow, settlers felt as though they were entitled to this land and committed heinous acts to take it.
The genocide of Native Americans is not a debatable topic. Genocide is an international crime that refers to acts committed to destroy “in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.” Two of these acts are killing and causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of a group. This occurred during the massacre of Yuki Indians (1856-1860), the Sand Creek Massacre (1864) and Wounded Knee (1890).
Another is the forcible transference of children from the targeted group to another group. Boarding schools for Native Americans were opened and funded by the federal government in the 1800s, bringing children thousands of miles from their families. In these institutions, Native Americans had their hair forcibly cut, they were forbidden to speak their native languages, their clothes were taken away and most notably, they were not allowed to go home.
In 1892, following the Native American genocide which ended in 1891, immigrants began to arrive at Ellis Island. There were over 12 million immigrants who came to America between 1892 and 1954. Most of these immigrants “were processed within hours and … no passports, visas, or papers were needed to enter the United States.” The process of legally immigrating to the United States now is very different and far more difficult.
The immigration system is flawed and discriminatory, and it takes an extraordinary amount of time to pass through, if passing through at all is even possible. David J. Bier, the associate director of immigration at the Cato Institute, explains that the line to legally enter the U.S. can take from several years to several decades. It is also incredibly expensive and costs more than what many immigrants can pay for; about “$1,760 to apply for a green card within the U.S. or $1,200 if the migrant is applying outside of the country.” This doesn’t begin to account for the money spent on medical exams and hiring a lawyer.
Immigrants, undocumented or not, are treated with a lack of respect, humanity and empathy. They are viewed as the “other,” similarly to Native Americans. Native Americans have historically been “most commonly portrayed as bloodthirsty savages battling against the white protagonist.” Immigrants are also stereotyped as dangerous and are scapegoats for the ills of society today. A concerningly common misconception is that “foreign-born, especially illegal immigrants, are responsible for higher crime rates.”
Those of us who are descendants of European colonizers and immigrants who came through Ellis Island cannot begin to understand the pain and mistreatment Native Americans faced and continue to face. Those same people also cannot grasp how incredibly difficult the process of entering the U.S. legally is, in addition to facing discrimination and insults left and right.
Current deportation in the U.S. is heading an increasingly dangerous and inhumane direction. As of April 6, 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold “47,928 in ICE detention according to data.” Immigrants in these facilities often do not receive health care or live in safe conditions. In fact, “most of the deaths of immigrants in detention occurred among “relatively young and healthy men” and were associated with ICE violating their own medical standards.”
Why do so many Americans feel as though they have more of a right to U.S. soil than others when that land was so violently and horrifically stripped by their ancestors from Native Americans? Even centuries later, we can still see the after-effects of the genocide. In 2013, Native Americans and Alaska Natives made up about 5.2 million people, which is only about 2% of the U.S. population. Instead of carelessly deporting millions of people, we should examine the flaws within our immigration system first and remember where we came from.