Trump’s Words Aren’t Just Insults—They’re Policy Signals

On December 2, 2025, President Donald Trump held a cabinet meeting wherein he verbally attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar, calling her “garbage,” and Somalia, the nation she came from, “barely a country.” These words reflect a continued effort to revive race and origin as tools to divide and dictate policy.

In 2017, Trump’s Muslim Ban targeted multiple Muslim-majority nations, including Somalia, under the guise of “national security.” In 2018, he asked why the United States should accept immigrants from “shithole countries,” instead of “places like Norway.” In 2019, he told four U.S. citizens — women of color in Congress, including Rep. Omar — to “go back” to the countries they came from.  

Branding African nations as “shithole countries” and Somalia as “barely a country” perpetuates centuries-old narratives that frame majority-Black nations and Black people as inferior and undesirable. Trump’s threat to “permanently pause migration” would disproportionately target African nations, echoing the racial quotas of the 1920s and reinforcing a hierarchy that places whiteness at the center of American belonging. This is the same ideology that once justified slavery, Jim Crow and immigration laws crafted to keep Black people out of America’s promise. 

How the History of American Citizenship is Rooted in Anti-Black Policies 

Trump’s recent words are part of a long pattern of messaging. His infamous racist slogan, “Make America Great Again,” is a continuum of the Ku Klux Klan’s “America for Americans,” and President Calvin Coolidge’s declaration that “America must remain American,” which then, as now, is a coded affirmation of racial violence and hierarchy that reflects a vision of “America” rooted in whiteness, Anglo-Saxon heritage and Protestant norms.  

While the Naturalization Act of 1790 established the rules for U.S. citizenship, it explicitly limited naturalization to “free white persons,” excluding Black Americans and other non-white individuals. This was a deliberate attempt to block enslaved persons and their descendants from laying claim to the land they were forced to live on and cultivate, fueling systemic discrimination and violence for generations. Seventy-six years later, the 14th Amendment introduced and sanctioned birthright citizenship as a corrective to anti-Black exclusion, finally guaranteeing citizenship to all people born on American soil.

However, Trump continues his futile attempt to rewrite history through a lily-white lens. His anti-immigration agenda seeks to undermine a constitutional principle rooted in racial justice. These efforts reveal how immigration policy has long been entangled with anti-Blackness and structural racism, not only through exclusionary laws, but also through narratives that criminalize Black immigrants and erase their contributions. Institutional racism embedded in immigration laws and enforcement has resulted in persistent inequitable outcomes.

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 banned Chinese immigrants outright. Later laws, like the Immigration Act of 1917 and the Immigration Act of 1924, went even further, banning immigrants from large parts of Asia and setting quotas that favored Europeans. African immigration was almost impossible because quotas were based on existing U.S. populations, where Africans were barely represented due to earlier anti-Black policies. 

How Racial Justice Fueled More Humane and Equitable Immigration Laws 

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 removed explicit racial restrictions from immigration law. However, meaningful change only accelerated two years later with Brown v. Board of Education, when the concept of “separate but equal” was legally dismantled. In this instance, collective action challenged entrenched racism and expanded access to rights and opportunities for people of all races, helping spark what would be known as the Civil Rights Movement, which continues to this very moment in history. Fear-driven policies harm everyone, while inclusive policies — such as public education, healthcare access and economic stability — benefit all communities. 

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 followed the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, dismantling the racist quota system and laying the foundation for modern immigration policy that opened doors to immigrants from Africa, Asia and Latin America. Today, immigrants comprise nearly 14 percent of the U.S. population, compared to 5 percent in 1965. This shift has enriched American culture, fueled economic growth, and reinforced civil rights principles by embedding racial equality into immigration law. 

While Trump attempted to disparage Rep. Omar and her racial background, her story embodies long-championed American ideals, demonstrating how resilience, opportunity and inclusion can transform lives. She fled civil war in Somalia, became a U.S. citizen and now serves in Congress. Her presence represents the promise of America: that refugees and immigrants not only contribute to, but are, in fact, the foundational pillars of, democracy and leadership

Why Immigration and Racial Justice are Foundational to Democracy 

With the barrage of racialized insults and inflammatory language over the last decade of Trump’s rhetoric, it can be tempting to dismiss them for the sake of our collective sanity. But these words are designed to erode our sense of what is acceptable, making harmful actions more likely. We cannot afford to be complacent.

When language is weaponized to erase racial justice and cement racial hierarchy, the very foundation of justice begins to crack. This fascist rhetoric seeks to resurrect the ghosts of Jim Crow and carve inequality into the bedrock of our nation. But as Rep. Omar’s personal history attests, America’s strength lies in its diversity of all human experiences and backgrounds. The days of this country’s legalized caste system are over.

We no longer dream of an inclusive America. We demand it, we build it, and we will not settle for anything less than justice and inclusion for all. The National Immigration Law Center recognizes and asserts that people of all communities — especially those living at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and ability — are people of inherent value.

We refuse to normalize racist verbal assaults. We must not become numb. We must listen, we must respond, and we must react. That is how we win.