The Long History of Demonizing Immigrants: From the Great Depression to Today
The Preamble
Sharon McMahon
4.9 • 15.3K Ratings
🗓️ 2 March 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Before ICE raids, there were pamphlets warning Americans about immigrant "peasants" stealing their jobs and "hell ships" dumping people into the Mexican desert with no food, water, or way to reach their families. Sharon looks back at the parallels between the mass deportations of the past and what’s happening now.
Plus, historian and author Ana Raquel Minian joins Sharon to discuss her book In the Shadow of Liberty and the cruelty of immigrant detention in the United States. She explains why brutality was the point.
And be sure to read our newsletter at ThePreamble.com – it’s free! Join hundreds of thousands of readers who still believe understanding is an act of hope.
Credits:
Host and Executive Producer: Sharon McMahon
Supervising Producer: Melanie Buck Parks
Audio Producer: Craig Thompson
(00:00:00) The Long History of Demonizing Immigrants
(00:13:03) Ellis Island Was a Prison
(00:27:48) Mass Incarceration of Immigrants
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The agents ascended the narrow staircase of the Garcia home, wrapping sharply on the door. |
| 0:09.6 | Rose's heart rate accelerated. |
| 0:11.8 | Sweat crept across her palms. |
| 0:14.8 | She opened the door just enough to seem polite. |
| 0:19.0 | Times are tough here, the agents said. |
| 0:20.7 | You'll be better off with your own kind of people in Mexico. to seem polite. Times are tough here, the agents said. |
| 0:27.1 | You'll be better off with your own kind of people in Mexico, people that speak your language. |
| 0:35.8 | At first, the agents, employees of a relief organization, made it sound like refusal was an option. |
| 0:38.9 | It's really for the best. You can bring your things with you, |
| 0:43.5 | and we've got the train tickets all arranged. Will two weeks be enough time to get your affairs in order? It was the 1930s, and the Garcia's were not really being given a choice. They were |
| 0:50.9 | being forced to repatriate. |
| 0:58.0 | More on that at a moment, but first welcome to the preamble podcast. |
| 0:59.6 | This week we're focusing on immigration. |
| 1:04.6 | Not on ice raids today, but what history teaches us about demonizing immigrants. |
| 1:12.3 | I'm joined by Anna Raquel Minion, who will tell us about the long, invisible history of immigrant detention in the U.S. and its lasting effect on all of us. |
| 1:14.7 | I'm Sharon McMahon, and this is the Preamble Podcast. |
| 1:19.3 | Now back to our story. |
| 1:22.5 | Imagine for a moment the sum total of every homeless person currently in the United States. |
| 1:28.0 | How many people would you estimate are currently unhoused in a population of 330 million? |
| 1:32.8 | The answer is about 650,000. |
| 1:35.2 | And now imagine the United States in 1930. |
| 1:38.5 | The population of the country was about 120 million. |
... |
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