Pozen Center Executive Director recently published an editorial in the Chicago Reporter, "Trump’s executive order builds on history of racist immigration policies."
In 1887, Chae Chan Ping, who had lived in California for 12 years, went to visit family in China. He carried with him a certificate of re-entry, which Congress required of all Chinese living in the United States who wished to travel abroad. The law was enacted in 1884, two years after Congress cut off new immigration of Chinese workers to the U.S.
But in 1888 when Chae Chan Ping was on a ship returning to the U.S., Congress enacted another statute which barred the entry of all Chinese workers, regardless of their prior legal status and whether or not they had gotten the certificate. The rules had changed while he was in transit, just as they did for many foreign travelers this weekend – this time by a presidential executive order.