Immigration Act of 1924

It has been suggested that National Origins Quota of 1924 be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

President Coolidge signs the immigration act on the White House South Lawn along with appropriation bills for the Veterans Bureau. John J. Pershing is on the President's right.

The Immigration Act of 1924, which included the National Origins Act, Asian Exclusion Act or the Johnson-Reed Act, was a United States federal law that limited the number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already living in the United States in 1890, according to the Census of 1890. It excluded immigration to the US of Asians. It superseded the 1921 Emergency Quota Act. The law was aimed at further restricting the Southern and Eastern Europeans who had begun to enter the country in large numbers beginning in the 1890s, as well as East Asians and Asian Indians, who were prohibited from immigrating entirely. It set no limits on immigration from Latin America.

The Act passed with strong congressional support in the wake of intense lobbying. ^[1] There were only six dissenting votes in the Senate and a handful of opponents in the House, the most vigorous of whom was freshman Brooklyn Representative Emanuel Celler. Over the succeeding four decades, Celler, who served for almost 50 years, made the repeal of the Act into a personal crusade. Some of the law's strongest supporters were influenced by Madison Grant and his 1916 book, The Passing of the Great Race. Grant was a eugenicist and an advocate of the racial hygiene theory. His data purported to show the superiority of the founding Northern European races. But most proponents of the law were rather concerned with upholding an ethnic status quo and avoiding competition with foreign workers.^[2]

Relative proportions of immigrants from Northwestern Europe (red) and Southeastern Europe (blue) in the decades before and after the immigration restriction legislation.

The act was also strongly supported by Samuel Gompers, well-known union leader and founder of the AFL. Gompers was himself a Jewish immigrant, despite the accusations by many Jews of the time that the quotas were based purely on anti-Semitism.

The act halted "undesirable" immigration with quotas. The act barred specific origins from the Asia-Pacific Triangle which included Japan, China, the Philippines, Laos, Siam (Thailand), Cambodia, Singapore (then a British colony), Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Burma (Myanmar), India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and Malaysia.^[3] It barred these immigrants because they, being non-white, were not eligible for naturalization, and the Act forbade the further immigration of any persons ineligible to be naturalized.^[3].^[3] As an example of its effect, in the ten years following 1900 about 200,000 Italians immigrated every year. With the imposition of the 1924 quota, only 4,000 per year were allowed. At the same time, the annual quota for Germany was over 57,000. 86% of the 165,000 permitted entries were from France, Britain, Germany, and other Northern European countries.

The quotas remained in place with minor alterations until the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.

National origins quota

National Origins Quota of 1924 according to the Immigration Act, was the first permanent limitation on immigration into the United States, established the “national origins quota system.” In conjunction with the Immigration Act of 1917, governed American immigration policy until 1952 (see the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952).

It contained two quota provisions:

In effect until June 30, 1927—set the annual quota of any quota nationality at two percent of the number of foreign-born persons of such nationality resident in the continental United States in 1890 (total quota - 164,667).

From July 1, 1927 (later postponed to July 1, 1929) to December 31, 1952—used the national origins quota system: the annual quota for any country or nationality had the same relation to 150,000 as the number of inhabitants in the continental United States in 1920 having that national origin had to the total number of inhabitants in the continental United States in 1920.

Preference quota status was established for: unmarried children under 21; parents; spouses of U.S. citizens aged 21 and over; and for quota immigrants aged 21 and over who are skilled in agriculture, together with their wives and dependent children under age 16.

Nonquota status was accorded to: wives and unmarried children under 18 of U.S. citizens; natives of Western Hemisphere countries, with their families; nonimmigrants; and certain others. Subsequent amendments eliminated certain elements of this law’s inherent discrimination against women but comprehensive elimination was not achieved until 1952 (see the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952).

Established the “consular control system” of immigration by mandating that no alien may be permitted entrance to the United States without an unexpired immigration visa issued by an American consular officer abroad. Thus, the State Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service shared control of immigration.

Introduced the provision that, as a rule, no alien ineligible to become a citizen shall be admitted to the United States as an immigrant. This was aimed primarily at Japanese aliens.

Imposed fines on transportation companies who landed aliens in violation of U.S. Immigration laws.

Defined the term “immigrant” and designated all other alien entries into the United States as “nonimmigrant” (temporary visitor). Established classes of admission for nonimmigrant entries.

See also

• National Origins Formula
• List of United States Immigration Acts

External links

• Statistics of who was allowed in after the Immigration Act of 1924
• "'Shut the Door': A Senator Speaks for Immigration Restriction" — transcript of speech given before Congress by Sen. Ellison D. Smith, April 9, 1924
• Eugenics Laws Restricting Immigration

Further Reading

• Daniels, Roger: The Politics of Prejudice: The Anti-Japanese Movement in California and the Struggle for Japanese Exclusion. Berkley and others: University of California Press, 1977. -covers the development of the anti-Japanese movement in California from late 19th Century to the passage of the Immigration Act of 1924
• Aristide Zolberg, A Nation by Design: Immigration Policy in the Fashioning of America, Harvard University Press 2006, ISBN 0674022181
• U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Laws and Issues: A Documentary History, hg. von Michael Robert Lemay, Elliott Robert Barkan, Greenwood Press 1999, ISBN 0313301565

References

United States immigration debate
Issues	Illegal immigration · Trafficking in human beings · Labor shortage · Terrorism · U.S-Mexico Border · Economic impact · Population · Immigration reduction · Legalization · Guest worker program
Proposed legislation	DREAM Act (2001-2007) · H.R. 4437 (2005) · Jackson Lee (2005) · McCain-Kennedy (2005) · SKIL (2006) · S. 2611 (2006) · STRIVE Act (2007) · S. 1348 (2007)
Action	REAL ID (2005) · Secure Fence Act (2006) · 2006 Protests
Organizations	Immigration and Customs Enforcement · CHIRLA · CCIR · NIF · FIRM · WAAA · NCLR · FAIR · MMP · MCDC · CCIR · SOS · CIS · NUSA · MPI
Past laws	Naturalization Act (1795) · 14th Amendment (1868) · Chinese Exclusion (1882) · Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907 (1907) · Emergency Quota Act (1921) · Immigration Act of 1924 (1924) · Bracero Program (1942-64) · INS Act (1965) · IRCA (1986) · IIRIRA (1996)

Donate to Wikimedia