Immigration Acts

Immigration Act (1917)

The Immigration Act of 1917, also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act, was passed by the U.S. Congress on February 5, 1917, overriding a veto by President Woodrow Wilson the previous December. The desire of this legislation was to control and curtail unwanted immigration into the United States. “Unwanted immigrants” included homosexuals, idiots, criminals, epileptics, alcoholics, beggars, polygamists, anarchists, and feeble-minded, insane, mentally and physically defective, and illiterate people.

This act was controversial since it called for the exclusion of immigrants who primarily came from Asia and the Pacific Islands; the mandate to restrict immigrants from these places was known as the Asiatic Barred Zone. Prior efforts to curtail Asian immigration were directed mainly at Chinese immigrants, under the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), which disqualified immigrants from gaining entry to the United States. Unlike other restrictive immigration efforts, the Immigration Act of 1917 introduced literacy testing in order to exclude immigrants from entering the country. Although Wilson vetoed this requirement for newly arrived immigrants, it was later upheld by Congress.

Immigration Act (1924)

The Immigration Act of 1924 was signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge in May 1924. This piece of legislation contained additional efforts by U.S. government officials to control the number of immigrants coming from particular national territories. Under this law, also known as the National Origins Act, U.S. officials reduced the number of immigrants that could be admitted to the nation, decreasing the percentage of immigrants, based on national origin, from 2 to 3 percent of the number of people from a given country already living in the United States. This act also reduced the percentage of potential immigrants previously established by the Emergency Quota Act (1921). In a similar spirit to the Immigration Act of 1917, this law excluded Asians.

One of the primary aims of the National Origins Act was to further restrict southern and eastern European migration. In particular, the government sought to curtail the entry of Jewish immigrants fleeing persecution in Poland and Russia, and began to prohibit immigration from India and Middle Eastern and east Asian countries. Some argue that the main purpose of the law was to preserve a homogeneous notion of American identity.

The act included provisions that gave preference to immigrants who were 21 years and older, and to agricultural laborers, their wives, and children. In addition, the law attempted to establish an official visa system that would be supervised by the State Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. As a result, no immigrant would be allowed to enter the United States without a valid visa issued by American consular officials. Those ineligible to enter lawfully were Japanese and Chinese immigrants. The law also imposed a fine on all companies that unlawfully transported undocumented immigrants to American soil.

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