Thread by @HMAesq

#WhiteNationalism has become brazen and open in this administration.

But it persists with the people behind the scenes, building a wall more effective than any physical one, clothing racism not in a white Klan robe but in a black judicial one.

I'm calling for a hearing.

To people like me who punish themselves by reading the writings of racists and white nationalists, it's a very familiar refrain.

Invasion
Illegal
Criminals
Aliens
Losing our identity
Them

Why else would cult classics like #CampoftheSaints still enjoy popularity?

It lays out the racial fear raw and unvarnished. Great to rally people to your cause, and maybe get them to light Tiki torches or shoot up a Wal-Mart on the border.

But it doesn't make true exclusionary policy.

Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent over decades tweaking an existing framework designed against black people modified to brown.

I'm not going to lie. I'm sick of it. I've heard stories of human suffering from around the world for 16 years.

The one thing that's common is the oppressor doesn't see the victim as fully human. So when I see the same dehumanizing language not only embraced, but pushed for by our government, year after year, it gets exhausting.

What fresh hell will they think of next?

Right now, the cancer of white nationalism - a more codified set of beliefs advocating for the purge of people deemed non-white and disenfrachisement of any remaining - is in the news. Even the party of Trump is paying lip service to it.

But to eradicate it, we need to know where racism has permeated lawmaking. Immigration restrictionists aren't necessarily card-carrying members of the white nationalist movement. But what's the difference if they're pushing policies with which white nationalists agree?

Serving on the state Commission, I once asked a man whose father was a white nationalist leader: "How do we recognize it when we see it?"

It's coded in the way we talk about people, but the big one is disparate impact of law on people who aren't "white."

As an immigration lawyer, I became interested in the origins of policies I've been fighting that almost only affect non-white people. In the papers of John Tanton, who died last month, I saw the formulation of a movement now enjoying outsized influence in the White House.

And there is yet to be built a positive framework that values aspiring Americans - we keep having these conversations in the Newspeak dialect created by those who want to ensure people of color are given no chance.

That's why I filed the lawsuit to unseal the #TantonPapers - we need to know where they're coming from, and sunlight is the best disinfectant. In our social media driven culture, it's hard to have a sustained tough conversation about it. But we must. People are dying.

There are a lot of conversations to be had, but a congressional hearing on the hidden white nationalism in our immigration policy would be a great place to start.