Hello there, I'm Chuck Todd and welcome to Meet the Press reports in this episode coming

to America.

They come here by the thousands, fleeing their homes, their possessions, and yes, even their

families with the hopes of a better life.

And when those refugees arrive at this border, they often face a similar nightmare that

they sacrifice so much to escape.

The group Human Rights First has tracked at least 492 attacks and kidnappings, suffered

by asylum seekers, turned away or stranded in Mexico, since President Biden took office.

And while we have all now become familiar with images like this, especially in recent

years, these images have also sadly become

part of the fabric of this country.

In the 19th century, it was Irish immigrants who fled a devastating potato famine who faced

the scorn of Americans.

They were told Irish need not apply for jobs, and they were depicted as subhuman in this

cartoon by Thomas Nast.

He's the so-called father of the American cartoon.

By the way, all of this chronicled very well when any of you can go visit the museum at

Ellis Island.

A century later, it was Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany on board.

They were German ship the St. Louis, who were turned away and forced to return to Europe.

More than a quarter of the nearly thousand passengers on board the St. Louis would end up

dying in the Holocaust.

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