Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (Hart-Celler Act, INS, Act of 1965, Pub.L. 89-236) abolished the national-origin quotas that had been in place in the United States since the Immigration Act of 1924. It was proposed by United States Representative Emanuel Celler of New York, co-sponsored by United States Senator Philip Hart of Michigan (known as "the Conscience of the Senate"), and heavily supported by United States Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts - all Democrats.[1]
An annual limitation of 300,000 visas was established for immigrants, including 170,000 from Eastern Hemisphere countries, with no more than 20,000 per country. By 1968, the annual limitation from the Western Hemisphere was set at 120,000 immigrants, with visas available on a first-come, first-served basis. However, the number of family reunification visas was unlimited, and it is only recently that country-origin quotas for spouses of US citizens, and numerical quotas for other relatives of US citizens have been instituted.
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Congressional consideration
In the Democratic-controlled Congress, the Republicans were powerless to stop it, and the House of Representatives voted 326 to 69 (82.5%) in favor of the act, while the Senate passed the bill by a vote of 76 to 18. Democratic opposition mainly came from Southern legislators. On October 3, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the legislation into law, saying "This [old] system violates the basic principle of American democracy, the principle that values and rewards each man on the basis of his merit as a man. It has been un-American in the highest sense, because it has been untrue to the faith that brought thousands to these shores even before we were a country." The act became law on July 1, 1968. Along with the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, it serves as one of the key parts of the United States immigration code to this day.
Ted Kennedy involvement
During debate on the Senate floor, Kennedy, speaking of the effects of the act, said: "First, our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually. Under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration remains substantially the same.... Secondly, the ethnic mix of this country will not be upset.... Contrary to the charges in some quarters, [the bill] will not inundate America with immigrants from any one country or area, or the most populated and deprived nations of Africa and Asia.... In the final analysis, the ethnic pattern of immigration under the proposed measure is not expected to change as sharply as the critics seem to think.... It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs."[2]
Immigration shift
By equalizing immigration policies, the act resulted in new immigration from non-European nations which changed the ethnic make-up of the United States.[3] Immigration doubled between 1965 and 1970, and doubled again between 1970 and 1990.[1] The most dramatic effect was to shift immigration from Europe to Asia. Immigration from the Western Hemisphere was unlimited under the 1924 act, so the 1965 act actually somewhat mitigated the inflow from Latin America, the large increase in immigration from Latin America to the United States in the latter part of the 20th century being due to natural population growth and illegal immigration, not legal immigration under this act[citation needed].
Long term results
A Boston Globe article attributed Barack Obama’s win in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election to a marked reduction over the preceding decades in the percentage of whites in the American electorate, attributing this demographic change to the Act.[3] The article quoted Simon Rosenberg, president and founder of the New Democrat Network, as having said that the Act is "the most important piece of legislation that no one’s ever heard of," and that it "set America on a very different demographic course than the previous 300 years."
See also
- History of laws concerning immigration and naturalization in the United States
- Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952
References
- ^ a b Frum, David (2000). How We Got Here: The '70s. New York, New York: Basic Books. pp. 268-269. ISBN 0465041957.
- ^ (U.S. Senate, Subcommittee on Immigration and Naturalization of the Committee on the Judiciary, Washington, D.C., Feb. 10, 1965. pp. 1-3.)
- ^ a b Peter S. Canellos (November 11, 2008), Obama victory took root in Kennedy-inspired Immigration Act, The Boston Globe, http://www.boston.com:80/news/politics/2008/articles/2008/11/11/obama_victory_took_root_in_kennedy_inspired_immigration_act/?page=full, retrieved 2008-11-14
External links
- President Lyndon B. Johnson's speech upon signing the bill
- Asian-Nation: 1965 Immigration Act & Its Effects on Asian Americans
- Ancestors in the Americas: The Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act
- Gabriel J. Chin, The Civil Rights Revolution Comes to Immigration Law: A New Look at the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, 75 North Carolina Law Review 273 (1996)
- Center for Immigration Studies: "Three Decades of Mass Immigration, The Legacy of the 1965 Immigration Act", September 1995
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