Nativism in U.S. politics has thwarted refugee resettlement before

One prominent case of this type occurred almost exactly a century ago. In the wake of World War I and the collapse of the Russian, Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires, the United States used a variety of incentives, coercion and politicking to disperse refugee flows emerging out of the Bolshevik Revolution and ensuing civil war in Russia. In 1920, the remains of the Russian White Army fled to the city of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul). The Allied powers, who had supported the White Army’s attempt to seize control of Russia from the Bolsheviks, had occupied Constantinople in 1919, and the port city served as the safest location for the 130,000 refugees fleeing Russia, consisting not only of White Army soldiers, but also their families and civilian followers.