On Immigration: Who Said It, Trump or White Supremacist Madison Grant?

The press has been having a great time lately figuring out whether Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is softening or hardening on his immigration stance. But, as Diana Lind writes over at Vox, there is really no mystery about where Trump stands. He’s has been clear about his overtly restrictive immigration designs, based on myths about Mexicans being criminally and disease-prone and on all Muslims being terrorists.

There are reasons why many Americans consider his immigration stance racist, beyond the nativist roots of Trump’s family and the legacy of slavery that motivates his supporters. One of the main reasons is that the language he uses mirrors, sometimes verbatim, the language used by early 20th-century white supremacists who fought to close America’s borders to immigrants. There were no shortage of men like that during that time period. One man worth examining in particular, however, is Madison Grant, the eugenicist and nature conservationist whose white supremacist worldview influenced President Teddy Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler alike. And Grant’s words on immigration in the 1910s and 1920s—perhaps the peak era for xenophobia in America—carry an uncanny resemblance to Trump’s rhetoric today.