--- title: How the U.S. Got to Today’s Immigration Debate | TIME description: Historian David Reimers takes a look the history of immigration policy in the U.S. and how it has evolved over the years. canonical: https://time.com/video/XG8U6QyO/ og:title: How the U.S. Got to Today’s Immigration Debate og:description: Historian David Reimers takes a look the history of immigration policy in the U.S. and how it has evolved over the years. og:url: https://time.com/video/XG8U6QyO/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/XG8U6QyO/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How the U.S. Got to Today’s Immigration Debate twitter:description: Historian David Reimers takes a look the history of immigration policy in the U.S. and how it has evolved over the years. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/XG8U6QyO/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # How the U.S. Got to Today’s Immigration Debate > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: How the U.S. Got to Today’s Immigration Debate [Watch (HLS stream): How the U.S. Got to Today’s Immigration Debate](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/XG8U6QyO.m3u8) (2:29)  _Published 2016-08-09. Historian David Reimers takes a look the history of immigration policy in the U.S. and how it has evolved over the years._ --- Jul 28, 2023 4:23 AM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [The U.S. Army Is Quietly Discharging Immigrant Recruits](/video/JOamUJFs/) ### The U.S. Army Is Quietly Discharging Immigrant Recruits [What to Know About Recent Immigration Raids in U.S. Cities](/video/WjQQgCEB/) ### What to Know About Recent Immigration Raids in U.S. Cities [The U.S.' Immigrations Problem Stems From the War on Drugs](/video/ZiMCqIvb/) ### The U.S.' Immigrations Problem Stems From the War on Drugs --- ## Transcript We're gonna build the wall, we're gonna create a border. We're gonna let people in, but they're gonna come in legally. And Mexico's gonna pay for the wall. I'm not gonna pay for that [ NOISE ] wall. So much of our history, immigrants just came and sort of came in. The Mexican situation really is very, very loose. The border was even ill defined for a number of years. 1924 the federal government set up a Border Patrol, it consisted mainly of a few rangers on horseback patrolling the boarder. They were more concerned about liquor, because it was the time of Prohibition, being smuggled in from Mexico. The people who owned the big growers Are the big railroads wanted that cheap labor to come in and they argued, well they'll come in, they'll work for six months on the railroads, repairing them, and then go home. Finally, they set up a National Origin System. It really favored the people that had been here for many many generations. [ MUSIC ] The 1965 Act First of all for the eastern hemisphere it got rid of all of the national origins. It gave every country in the eastern hemisphere 20, 000 slots. For the western hemisphere it just said 120, 000. Mexico had been sent about half. Of 120, 000. So, now other countries were gonna push into that. I can't tell you how many times I read in books, the 1965 Act opened the door for mass Latino immigration, well, it really didn't. It tried to contain Hispanic immigration. But in 1970s, Congress put in a new system which gave a worldwide system, every country, 20, 000, 120, 000 western hemisphere. 170 here, it as merged to one, 290, 000. All of business about Muslims and Mexicans and their religious issue. It's old but it's like kind of racist argument. That they're inferior The drug people. So, that has a familiar tone. [ APPLAUSE ]. The last attempt to do anything was in 2006. And, since that time, the Republicans just dug in their feet, and are not going to pass any kind of immigration legislation, unless it's to have more border patrol. Are to build more fences. 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