Bankrolling the Anti-Immigration Movement

Aug 19, 2019

The New York Times investigated how Cordelia Scaife May, an heiress to the Mellon family’s banking and industrial fortune, used her wealth to sow the seeds of the modern anti-immigration movement — and of Trump administration policy. Guests: Natalie Kitroeff, a business reporter for The Times, spoke with Nicholas Kulish, who covers immigration issues. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. 

Background reading: 

• Newly unearthed documents show how an environmental-minded socialite became a nativist whose vision for strictly limiting immigration has, in many ways, reached a culmination in the Trump presidency.
• Groups that Mrs. May funded shared policy proposals with the Trump campaign, sent staff members to join the administration and have close ties to Stephen Miller, the architect of the president’s immigration agenda.

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