📝 The Rats at the Gate: How Americans Talked About Italians (and How We Still Talk About Immigrants Today)

A conversation with Miles Carter and Beth (ChatGPT) Editied by Grok and Gemini

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Teaser

They were once seen as rats, anarchists, and mobsters. Today, Italian Americans are beloved icons of the American Dream. But back when they arrived, they faced slurs, violence, and suspicion. This post explores how Italians were demonized—and how the same story plays out again today with a new cast of immigrants, with one disturbing difference: today, due process itself is under attack.

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Main Conversation

Miles’ Question

Let’s talk about the Italian immigration wave. How were they treated? What percent of the population were they? What percent served in the military? What crimes did they really commit, and how many were in gangs? Then let’s destroy the myths—and compare all of it to how we talk about immigrants today.

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Beth’s Response

Absolutely. Let’s take it point by point and build a full picture.

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1️⃣ How Many Italians Came—and How Big Was the Wave?

Between 1880 and 1924, more than 4 million Italians immigrated to the U.S., mostly from southern Italy and Sicily. By 1920, about 1.6 million first-generation Italians lived in the U.S.—not counting their American-born children.

• In 1920, Italians made up roughly 2% of the U.S. population.
• In major cities like New York and Boston, they formed up to 15–20% of local populations.
• In today’s terms: For every 100 Americans in 1920, 2 were Italian immigrants.

Compare that to today’s immigrant population, which is about 13.9% of the U.S. total—7x larger, yet still a minority often painted as overwhelming.

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2️⃣ How Were They Treated?

Brutally.

• Political cartoons portrayed Italians as rats, criminals, and bomb-throwing anarchists.
• Newspapers referred to them as “dagos,” “wops,” and members of the “Black Hand.”
• In 1891, eleven Italians were lynched in New Orleans—the largest mass lynching in U.S. history. No one was convicted.
  The New York Times called it “a cleansing of the community.”

Today’s immigrant fear narratives—“they won’t assimilate,” “they bring crime,” “they hate our values”—mirror these exact lines.

But there is a new, troubling difference: due process is being denied outright. In a recent speech, the President stated that it would be “impossible” to deport all undocumented immigrants if they were granted a day in court—openly suggesting that constitutional rights are too inconvenient to uphold. This is a shift even from the xenophobia of the past, where trials (even biased ones) were still part of the process.

Today, some immigrants are being deported without hearings, and in rare but chilling cases, even U.S. citizens have been detained and deported due to errors and systemic neglect.

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3️⃣ Did They Serve in the Military?

Yes—and in huge numbers.

🇺🇸 World War I:

• Estimated 300,000–400,000 Italian Americans served.
• Made up about 6–8% of U.S. troops, though they were just 2–3% of the population.

🇺🇸 World War II:

• Over 1.2 million Italian Americans served.
• Represented about 7.5% of the total fighting force.

Compare that to today:

• About 65,000 foreign-born individuals serve in the military (5% of active duty).
• Over 130,000 immigrants have gained citizenship through service since 9/11.

The pattern: We fear them—then we send them to fight our wars. And now, even some of those who served face deportation or legal limbo, without the protections once expected.

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4️⃣ Did They Commit Crime? What About the Mafia?

Yes, some Italians were involved in organized crime—but the myth of the “criminal Italian” far outweighed the truth.

• Less than 1% of Italian Americans were involved in organized crime.
• During Prohibition, Italian syndicates did rise—e.g., Al Capone—but so did Irish (e.g., Bugs Moran) and Jewish gangs (e.g., Meyer Lansky).
• Most Italian immigrants were law-abiding—and often victims of crime and poverty.

Today, the same trick is played:

• MS-13 is cited constantly in anti-immigrant rhetoric, but it accounts for less than 1% of U.S. homicides.
• Studies show that immigrants commit less crime than native-born Americans.
• Only 5–10% of gang members in the U.S. are undocumented immigrants.

The fear isn’t based on stats—it’s based on visibility, culture clash, and political usefulness.

And unlike in the past, today’s immigrant may not even get a chance to defend themselves. Deportations increasingly occur without trials, and media narratives paint guilt as presumed.

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5️⃣ Did They Form Gangs?

Yes, in some cities—but so did every ethnic group under economic pressure.

• The so-called Black Hand extortion rings were sensationalized in the press.
• Street gangs were common in immigrant-heavy neighborhoods, where poverty, not ethnicity, drove crime.
• The Mafia became mythologized in movies and newspapers—but remained a tiny fraction of Italian America.

Compare that to today:

• Most gang crime in the U.S. is committed by U.S.-born citizens.
• Latino gangs like MS-13 often consist of U.S.-born members, not recent immigrants.
• The U.S. actually exported gangs to Latin America via deportation and prison systems.

Fear of crime has always been used to justify abuses of civil liberties. But now, it’s used to skip them altogether.

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6️⃣ What Did Italians Contribute?

Everything from food to politics to architecture. Here’s a short list:

• Labor: Built tunnels, railroads, and cities.
• Culture: Brought us Italian cuisine, music, festivals.
• Science: Enrico Fermi—nuclear physics pioneer.
• Politics: Mayors, senators, Supreme Court justices (e.g., Antonin Scalia).
• Business: Entrepreneurs in everything from wine to construction.

Many rose from being labeled “racially inferior” to becoming symbols of the American dream.

Today’s immigrants do the same—yet face a steeper hill, with due process itself eroding underfoot.

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7️⃣ What Are the Myths—Then and Now?

Myth	Italians Then	Immigrants Now
They’re criminals	Mafia hysteria	MS-13 panic
They don’t assimilate	“Un-American” Catholics	“They speak Spanish, not English”
They bring disease	“Dirty Italians”	COVID-era border rhetoric
They’re ungrateful	Lynched despite military service	Denied citizenship while serving
They’re invading	“Hordes” at Ellis Island	“Caravans” at the border
They deserve no trial	Show trials, biased judges	Open denial of due process

Today’s immigrant is just yesterday’s Italian with a new face and a new accent. But in one key way, things are worse: we’re starting to dismantle the legal protections that once stood between fear and tyranny.

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Beth’s Summary

Italian immigrants were vilified, marginalized, and murdered. Yet they served, worked, contributed, and ultimately helped build the nation that once feared them. That cycle—fear, scapegoating, contribution, acceptance—hasn’t ended. It’s just moved on to the next immigrant group.

But today, there is a dangerous new chapter: the erosion of due process. When leaders say the courts are too slow for justice, what they really mean is that justice itself is too slow for fear.

America doesn’t learn. It just recasts the villain—and then removes their right to speak.

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