The Legacy of Slavery Continues in Modern Immigration Law

To honor Juneteenth, when Black Americans in Galveston, Texas were finally informed of their freedom two years after Emancipation, former president Barack Obama has often called upon Americans to reflect on our progress towards equality while acknowledging the work that remains ahead. Public education on the socioeconomic impacts of slavery has strengthened over the past decade, but many fail to recognize slavery’s impact on immigration policy. In this two-part blog series, we’ll explore how anti-Black policies in the United States informed the history of public charge and welfare programs, and how those biases continue to harm Black and immigrant communities today.

How the Public Charge Policy Restricted Black Emancipation from Slavery

During the time of slavery in the United States, some Black Americans were born emancipated, and others had limited avenues to attain freedom. States developed “public charge” laws with them in mind.

The roots of public charge begin with “poor laws” from Elizabethan England that carried over to the colonies in the 17th century. Heavily influenced by religious politics, these laws emphasized “work ethic.” Performing work without protest was an act of holiness while idleness was considered sinful and less deserving of support.

Freedom for some Black Americans, then, was dependent on convincing the state that an enslaved person could care for themself upon being emancipated despite their supremely restricted access to economic opportunities, education, and property. Public charge can be seen in the earliest state constitutions for Mississippi, Missouri, Kentucky, and Arkansas – specifically, and only, in sections that address slavery.

White-owned newspapers at the time circulated propaganda that a Black person freed from slavery would inevitably become a “public charge,” engage in criminal behavior, or fraudulently exploit charity. Much of this was fueled by pseudoscientific arguments that falsely claimed that Black people were intellectually or morally inferior to whites. As forced labor became the economic bedrock of white prosperity, public charge became part of the architecture that kept slavery in place. This idealized culture of self-sufficiency, that relied on slavery and racist scientific beliefs, created an insurmountable obstacle to freedom for Black Americans.

How Anti-Black Sentiment Informed State Immigration Policies

Prior to 1875, one distinct element of early American law was that immigration was largely considered a state issue and applied to anyone crossing a state’s border (whether from another nation or another state). It was common for states to therefore create immigration laws to police their borders and deny entry to freed or free-born Black Americans, and enslaved people, for fear that the enslaved person “visiting” from out of state would run away.

Some Northern abolitionists may have despised slavery but were still prejudiced against Black communities or did not want to deal with the legal burdens of protecting Black people who had escaped slavery. Debates surrounding the expansion or abolition of slavery went hand-in-hand with efforts to control the growing free Black population. For instance, in Illinois, Black residents were required to carry documentation to prove their legal status or risk being arrested and, possibly, re-enslaved. Indiana and Oregon passed complete bans on the entry and settlement of Black communities.

How Public Charge Policies Evolved After the End of State-Sanctioned Slavery

After the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States, public charge laws could no longer be used to guarantee forced labor from Black communities. The laws were still effective in policing Black peoples’ movement. However, lawmakers prioritized new ways to return the South to a free-labor economy, using sinister and punitive vagrancy laws that made Black poverty a criminal offense.

To make matters worse, the 1873 economic depression quickly destroyed commitments towards social progress. Free Black communities and newly arrived immigrants became an easy scapegoat for the economic burdens caused by the greed of the wealthy class. Lawmakers preyed upon the public’s economic anxieties and pushed anti-Black and anti-immigrant propaganda that strengthened white anger, resistance, and racially motivated violence against Black, Chinese, and Latino communities. This is a strategy that has been used repeatedly: during the Great Depression, the subprime mortgage crisis, and in current political discourse.

Within a decade, the federal government trapped people of color into a second-class status. In 1883, the Supreme Court ruled that sections of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 were unconstitutional, and legalized racial discrimination against non-whites in private businesses. It paved the way for the “separate but equal” doctrine and created two separate worlds for the American people: One for whites and one for people of color.

During that same period, the Supreme Court ruled that immigration was a federal responsibility and Congress, influenced by a history of economic insecurities and resistance to social progress, passed its first restrictive immigration laws, including The Page Act and The Chinese Exclusion Act.

The first comprehensive federal immigration bill passed in 1882 and built upon the pre-existing state immigration laws that restricted Black mobility. This is when public charge policies became a permanent fixture of federal immigration law.

How Anti-Black Bias Persists in Anti-Immigration Law

American attitudes towards immigrants, especially from majority-Black countries, are shaped by the legacy of slavery, built on false narratives about criminality while promoting white supremacy. This is especially made clear by today’s political debates on public charge in immigration policy. By honoring the greater historical context of these laws, we can be more transformative in our approach to fight for immigrant justice.