The boat held 907 passengers, refugees fleeing war and religious persecution. Denied permission to land in the United States, it circled offshore while Coast Guard cutters prevented the captain from executing his last-ditch plan of grounding the vessel. After several days of fruitless negotiation, the ship turned away from America and back towards the refugees’ home continent. They would eventually be accepted in various countries there, but that safety proved illusory: several hundred would still die as war and genocide overtook their new homes.
The boat was the German ocean liner St. Louis; the year was 1939. Despite Emma Lazarus’ words on the Statute of Liberty welcoming the hungry, tired, and poor, the United States has a checkered history when it comes to accepting refugees. Still, President Trump’s recent executive order 13769 stands out.
The stated purpose of the order is “to protect the American people from terrorist attacks by foreign nationals admitted to the United States.” But as Ben Wittes argues, it is hard to understand the order as a good-faith attempt to pursue that goal.
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