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In this week’s SojoMail, Russell Jeung writes that Chinese Christians in the late 19th century joined other migrants to defy government orders, even at threat of deportation. He asks: Will we have the same courage now? Before President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, NBC News reported that the incoming administration was considering targeting “Chinese men who are deemed to be of military age living illegally in the United States” in its mass-deportation efforts. This followed remarks from last April building on decades of racist “Yellow Peril” tropes in which Trump claimed: “They’re coming from China over the last few months … are they trying to build a little army in our country?” This week, after Trump assumed office, he signed executive orders declaring a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border and issuing a broad ban on asylum. Large raids are expected in major cities across the country, including Chicago, Denver, and Minneapolis; and millions fear deportation and separation from loved ones. In this anxious moment, I find it helpful to remember a similar era from the late 19th century, a time when Chinese migrants, under threat of mass deportation, collectively resisted with one of the greatest instances of civil disobedience in U.S. history.
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