Immigration policy in the U.S. (historical)

Summary

 * To outline the historical Immigration policies in the U.S. before 1986.
 * To provide full and original wordings of each policy if and when possible.
 * To analyze, in brief, the impact each individual policy had on immigration within the U.S.


 * The first naturalization law in the United States was the 1795 Naturalization Act which restricted citizenship to “free white person” who had lived in the country for five years. This was broadened in 1870 to allow both Whites and African-Americans, though Asians were still excluded from citizenship. Immigration was otherwise unlimited to this date.


 * In 1862, Congress passed the first law restricting immigration by forbidding American vessels to transport Chinese immigrants to the U.S.


 * In 1875, The supreme court declared that regulation of U.S. immigration is the responsibility of the Federal government, and thus spurred the first of many immigration policies.

Immigration Time Line in Brief
1862 California State Anti-Coolie Act
 * United States’ Congress passes the first law restricting the immigration of the Chinese into the U.S.
 * The official title of this law is: AN ACT TO PROTECT FREE WHITE LABOR AGAINST COMPETITION WITH CHINESE COOLIE LABOR, AND TO DISCOURAGE THE IMMIGRATION OF THE CHINESE INTO THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA April 26, 1862.
 * Forbade American vessels to transport Chinese immigrants into the country.
 * Taxed the Chinese labor workers who were already in the state
 * Those excluded from the tax were Chinese labor workers who manufactured rice, coffee, tea, and sugar
 * This act did not affect ships coming from other nations around the world.

1882 Chinese Exclusion Act
 * The act provided a 10-year freeze on Chinese labor immigration.
 * Required that nonlaborers who wanted entry into the U.S. were required to obtain a certification from the Chinese government, stating that they were qualified to immigrate to the U.S.
 * Placed restrictions on the Chinese individuals who had already been in the country.
 * Was extended for another 10 years in 1892 and 1902, and indefinitely in 1904. It was finally repelled in 1943.

1891 Immigration Act of 1891
 * Compulsory that all newly arriving immigrants had to undergo a medical inspection when they entered the country.
 * Also excluded polygamists, paupers, and persons convicted of moral corruption from immigrated to the United States.

1907 (a) Immigration Act of 1907
 * Excluded list grew to include those who they deemed were “imbeciles, feeble-minded person” and parentless children under the age of 17 years old.
 * Also included persons who were mentally or physically challenged, or found “defective”.

1907 (b) Gentleman's Agreement Act
 * Ensured that the Japanese government would not issue passports to Japanese laborers, who are intending to go abroad and try and enter the United States.
 * In turn, the United States would refrain from enacting any anti-immigration laws on Japanese already residing within the United States.
 * The Gentleman’s Agreement was in effect until 1924.

1917 Immigration Act of 1917
 * Required a literacy test to be given to immigrants trying to gain entry into the country.
 * Barred Asiatic laborers coming from the Asiatic Barred Zone (a geographical region covering most of Eastern Asia and the Pacific Islands).

1918 Anarchist Exclusion Act
 * Added rebellious (subversive) aliens onto the list of those who were excluded from gaining entry into the United States.

1921 Emergency Quota Act
 * Also known as the Johnson Quota Act
 * To limit the number of immigrants being accepted in the United States
 * Quota set at three(3) percent of total number of countries' citizens currently living in US

1922 Ozawa vs. United States
 * Supreme Court Case in which Asians citizens attempted to become eligible for naturailzation in United States

1924 Immigration Act of 1924
 * Also known as the Johnson-Reed Act
 * Set a new quota at two(2) percent, lowering the original number from the Emergency Quota Act of 1921
 * It helped in banning virtually all Asian immigration into the United States

1929 National Origins Act of 1929
 * Placed a cap on all immigration into the United States
 * The number was set at one hundred and fifty thousand (150,000) for all countries of the world, but excluded the Americas

1934 Tydings-McDuffie Act
 * An agreement with the Philippines to allow the nation to become independent
 * However, Filipino citizens inside and outside the United States would now be considered aliens
 * A cap was put on Filipino immigration at fifty(50) immigrants per year

1943 Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act
 * Act nullified The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
 * Act allowed Chinese immigrants to the United States for the first time since 1882

1948 Displaced Persons Act
 * Passed by Congress to allow displaced European citizens from World War II a chance to migrate to America
 * Set at 202,000 people that fell under the category of "eligible displaced person"
 * An effort by the US to smooth tensions with European countries
 * It also relieved restrictions that were currently put in place

1952 The Immigration and Nationality Act(The McCarran-Walter Act)
 * Upheld the national origins quota system established by the Immigration Act of 1924.
 * Also ended Asian exclusion from immigrating to the U.S. and introduced a system of preference based on skill sets and family reunification.

1953 The Refugee Act
 * To deal with unexpected and urgent needs of refugees, displaced persons, conflict victims, and other persons at risk around the globe.

1954 Operation Wetback
 * A Repatriation project of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to remove about four million illegal immigrants, with a focus on Mexicans (“wetbacks”) from the southwest.



1962 Migration and Refugee Assistance Act
 * Made up to $22 million from the U.S. Emergency Refugee and Migration assistance Fund available to meet unexpected urgent refugee and migration needs.

1965 Amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act
 * Abolished the national-origin quotas in place since the Immigration Act of 1924.
 * Established allocation of immigrant visas on a first-come, first-serve basis.
 * Established a category of immigrants not subject to numerical restrictions: immediate relatives (parents, spouses, children) of U.S. citizens
 * Limited Eastern Hemisphere immigration to 170,000 and placed a ceiling for the first time on Western Hemisphere immigration (120,000). Neither of the preference categories of per-country limit were applied to the Western Hemisphere

1977 Amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act
 * An amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act which abolishes separate quotas for the western and eastern hemispheres; changing the quota to 290,000 immigrants worldwide annually with a maximum of 20,000 for any one country.

1980 The Refugees act
 * This act reduced the quota to 70,000 refugees, 270,000 immigrants worldwide, with a maximum of 20,000 for any one country.

1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act
 * Amended Immigration and nationality act of 1953 to better control unauthorized immigration. Requires employers and states to check work authorization documents for every new employee or benefit applicant, including U.S. citizens, and to complete a related form.

Impacts on Immigration
1862 -1918 California State Anti-Coolie Act to Anarchist Exclusion Act
 * These anti-immigration acts were the first of their kind to introduce the system of restricting the entry of a specific group into the United States based solely on their ethnic backgrounds. During this time as  well, the United States fostered an agreement with the Japanese government which gave special privileges to Japanese immigrants regarding entry into the country.  This showed the favoritism evident in country to country dealings.  Not only did the United States form an agreement with the Japanese government but with other countries belonging to the South Pacific.  These laws would essentially act as the groundwork for future plans and development within anti-immigration, as well as immigration, laws in the future; which will be further discussed in the sections to follow this one.

1921 Emergency Quota Act
 * The Emergency Quota Act of 1921, also known as the Johnson Quota Act, was put into place to limit the number of immigrants accepted into the United States. The quota was set at allowing only three (3) percent of the total number of citizens from a specific country already living in America.  The government used the census of 1910 to figure out how many citizens from each nation were currently in the United States.  The Act allowed more than have the allotted number of immigrants, which was set at around 350,000 from census numbers, to come from western and northern Europe with the remainder of spots going to eastern and southern European countries.


 * This Act was a direct result of the feeling of isolationism in the country following World War I. There was mistrust of foreign nations by the United States government and its citizens and this Act allowed America to choose how many immigrants would be let in.  It was also an Act that attempted to help American citizens retain the jobs they were losing out to foreign-born immigrants by limiting these foreigners from entering the country.

1922 Ozawa vs. United States
 * In an effort to have Asian citizens the right to become eligible for naturalization in the United States Takao Ozawa brought his case to the United Sates Supreme Court. He argued that Asians should be classified as Caucasians, or whites, thus allowing them the right to be naturalized.  However, the court ruled against Ozawa and Asians were declared “unable to be classified as Caucasian”.  They were considered to be part of the “unassimilable race” and the law held up it’s ruling that Asians would not be allowed to be naturalized citizens of the United States.

1924 Immigration Act of 1924
 * The Immigration Act of 1924, also known as the Johnson-Reed Act, was established to further limit the number of immigrants migrating to America from overseas. It was created to set a permanent quota system, thus replacing the temporary Quota Act of 1921.  The Act set a new quota at two (2) percent, meaning that the United States would only allow another two percent of the total amount of those citizens population that already reside in America to enter; they used the 1890 Census to determine the populations of those people currently living in the United States.   The previous number had been three (3) percent.  Three years later in 1927 the percent was replaced by a cap of 150,000 immigrants allowed into the United States annually.


 * The Act was also said to favor immigrants from Western European countries over all other foreign nations with an emphasis on discriminating against people from southern and Eastern Europe. More importantly the Act of 1924 was the final and most effective act that banned virtually all immigration for Asians coming into the United States.  This directly violated the terms set up from the “Gentlemen’s Agreement” of 1908 between the United States and Japan, which led to increased tensions between the two nations.  It prohibited people who were “ineligible for citizenship”, which affected Asians mostly.  The Act also rejected all Chinese women, even wives of current US citizens, from entering America, which led to a disproportionate number of Chinese men and woman in America for the next forty years.

1929 National Origins Act of 1929
 * The National Origins Formula of 1929 was established to put a cap on all immigration to the United States. The total number was set at one hundred and fifty thousand (150,000) that included all of the nations of the world except for countries in the Americas.

1934 Tydings-McDuffie Act
 * In 1934 the United States set up an agreement with the Philippines called the Tydings-McDuffie Act that would allow the nation to become independent in 1946. It is also known as the Philippine Independence Act.  However, this law meant that Filipinos living inside the United States would now be considered alien and the number of Filipino immigrants allowed in the country was cut significantly.  The new number was set at only fifty immigrants (50) allowed into the United States every year.

1943 Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act
 * On December 17, 1943 the Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act was approved. This Act nullified the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.  The original Act was a move to keep Chinese laborers from entering the United States for a ten year period and taking jobs away from American citizens.  Although the Act was supposed to keep only Chinese laborers from entering, it made it very difficult for any Chinese citizens from entering.  The Act continued on for many years by having the ten-year time period extended.  First, the Act was extended by the Geary Act of 1892 and then extended again permanently in 1902.  Both extensions led to sixty-one (61) years worth of Chinese immigrants being excluded from entering the United States.
 * That lasted until this Act was passed in 1943. For the first time since 1882 Chinese citizens were allowed to immigrate to the United States.  However, the number allowed was still much lower than most European countries.

1948 Displaced Persons Act
 * The Displaced Persons Act of 1948 was a law passed in Congress to allow a specific number of displaced European citizens of World War II the opportunity to immigrate to the United States. These were refugees uprooted from their homes during the war that were either not allowed or chose not to return to their home countries.  The number was set at 202,000 immigrants that fell under the category of “eligible displace person”.  This was an effort by the United States government to smooth tensions among European countries following the war.  This Act also relieved some of the restrictions that were set in place previously limiting the number of immigrants from around the world attempting to find a new home in America.

1952 The Immigration and Nationality Act(The McCarran-Walter Act)
 * The Immigration and nationality act revised the 1924 system to allow for national quotas at the rate of 1/6th of 1 percent of each nationality’s population in the US in 1920. It continued to not include countries in the Western Hemisphere in the quota system, though it introduced new residency requirements to qualify for the quota-free entry.


 * This Act created symbolic opportunities for Asian immigration; though in reality, it continued to discriminate against them. It allotted each Asian nation a minimum quota of 100 visas each year and eliminated laws preventing Asians from becoming naturalized American citizens. However, the new law only allotted new Asian quotas based on race, instead of nationality.


 * Other positive changes as a result of this immigration and nationality act are the creation of a system of preferences. This system gave individuals with special skills or families already resident in the US precedence. This act also gave non-quota status to alien husbands of American citizens and created a labor certification system to prevent new immigrants from becoming unwanted competition for American laborers.

1953 The Refugee Act
 * This act was for the relief of certain refugees, and orphans, and for other purposes. It allowed any person in country or area which is neither communist nor communist-dominated, who because of persecution, fear of persecution, natural calamity or military operations is unable to return to his place of origin, and is in urgent need of assistance for the essentials of life or for transportation. Those who receiving visas under this act were exempt from paying the fees prescribed in the Immigration and Nationality Act. Immigrant visas were no longer issued after December 31, 1956.

1954 Operation Wetback
 * In 1949 the Border Patrol seized nearly 280,000 illegal immigrants. By 1953, the numbers had grown to more than 865,000, so something had to be done. What resulted was Operation Wetback, devised in 1954 under the supervision of new commissioner of the Immigration and Nationalization Service, Gen. Joseph Swing.


 * Border patrol, and state and local officials were organized along with the police. The target of this border enforcement were "illegal aliens," but common practice of Operation Wetback focused on Mexicans in general. The police swarmed through known Mexican-American areas throughout the southeastern states. Some Mexicans, fearful of the potential violence of this militarization, fled back south across the border. In 1954, the agents discovered over 1 million illegal immigrants.


 * In some cases, illegal immigrants were deported along with their American-born children, who were by law U.S. citizens. The agents used a wide brush in their criteria for interrogating potential aliens. The practice of stopping "Mexican-looking" citizens on the street and asking for identification, was developed. This practice incited and angered many U.S. citizens who were of Mexican American descent. Opponents in both the United States and Mexico complained of "police-state" methods, and Operation Wetback was abandoned.

1962 Migration and Refugee Assistance Act
 * Made up to $22 million from the U.S. Emergency Refugee and Migration assistance Fund available to meet unexpected urgent refugee and migration needs.

1965 Amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act
 * This Amendment was proposed by Emanuel Celler, cosponsored by Philip Hart, and heavily supported by Senator Ted Kennedy.


 * An annual limitation of 170,000 visas was established for immigrants from Eastern Hemisphere countries with no more than 20,000 per country. This was changed in 1968 to an annual limitation from the Western Hemisphere set at 120,000 immigrants, with visas available on a first-come, first-serve basis. The number of family reunification visas became unlimited with the intention of ending the separation of U.S. citizens from their families.


 * This act has changed American society by making it a multicultural and multiethnic nation. A large reason for the Immigration Act of 1965 was the Civil Rights movement. This movement was to rid America of racial/ethnic discrimination.


 * The McCarran-Walter act of 1952 reflected this discrimination, particularly towards Asians. For example, while the European immigrants’ quota was 149,667, the quota for Asian immigrants was 2,990, and the African quota was 1,400. The Immigration act, therefore, shifted the focus to non-European countries.

1977 Amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act
 * The purpose of this act was to eliminate the last of unequal treatment under the immigration laws to date. This has allowed equal opportunity for people all over the globe to migrate into the United States. It has contributed greatly to the current diversity of our country today.

1980 The Refugees act
 * The Refugees act created the Federal Refugee Resettlement Program to provide for the resettlement of refugees and to assist them to achieve economic self-sufficiency as quickly as possible.


 * Because of this act, refugees came overwhelmingly from communist or communist-influenced states unfriendly to the U.S. Many Refugees were admitted predominantly from the former- USSR, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Poland, Romania, Afghanistan, and Cuba. These Asylum seekers were approved at rates significantly above the worldwide average. Those who tried to enter from countries which were friendly to the U.S, have asylum approval rates significantly below the worldwide average. For example, Soviet asylum seekers were approved at a rate of 82.4 percent in 1990, while only 2.6 percent of those from El Salvadore were approved.


 * The right of aliens to apply for asylum, strengthened by this at, has become a magnet for illegal immigrants and a major obstacle to quick and consistent removal of illegal entrants.

1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act
 * The Immigration Reform and Control act (IRCA) provided a program for certain illegal immigrants who had lived in the U.S. since at least January 1, 1982, to apply to become legal residents with the right to work. This was another program which allowed seasonal agricultural workers to apply for legal residency. These newly legal residents could eventually become citizens.


 * The IRCA provided for an increase in temporary worker visas when employers could show there were not enough legal workers willing and able to perform the tasks, particularly agriculture work. The IRCA gave many formerly illegal immigrants the right to live and work in the U.S and to eventually become U.S. citizens.