The Washington Post called for banning European immigrants after 1920 terrorist attack

Closing the doors of Ellis Island was proposed after a terrorist attack in 1920.
(Image credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

History repeats itself? Following the terrorist attacks in Brussels Tuesday morning, Donald Trump called for the closure of U.S. borders "until we figure out what is going on."

"We have to be very, very careful who comes into our country," he said.

Trump isn't the first to suggest closing America's borders in the face of terrorism. Following the 1920 Wall Street bombing in New York — which killed 38 people and seriously wounded 143 — The Washington Post ran a vitriolic editorial claiming that the "alien scum from the cesspools and sewers of the Old World" were polluting "the clear spring of American democracy."

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"The doors at Ellis Island stand wide open to fresh hordes of warped and half-crazed deserters from Europe. What folly is this which prompts so ill an appreciation of a great sociological fact?" the editorial reads.

It's a hair-raising reminder of how far we've come — or haven't.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.