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The 1924 Johnson-Reed Act marked a schism in the country’s immigration history. How did the nation get to that point? Before the act, there were these smaller attempts to restrict immigration.
Literacy Tests and “Asiatic Barred Zone”. In 1917, the U.S. Congress enacted the first widely restrictive immigration law. The uncertainty generated over national security during World War I made it possible for Congress to pass this legislation, and it included several important provisions that paved the way for the 1924 Act.
The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson–Reed Act, including the Asian Exclusion Act and National Origins Act (Pub. L. 68–139, 43 Stat. 153, enacted May 26, 1924), was a United States federal law that prevented immigration from Asia and set quotas on the number of immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. [1][2] It also authorized the ...
May 15, 2024 · A century later, the law's legacy remains visible. One century after the law’s enactment on May 26, 1924, the United States, in the midst of a presidential campaign, is once again in the throes of an intense debate over the value of immigration, acceptable levels, and which immigrants to receive. The rhetoric employed in today’s debates is ...
- Immigration Act Sought to Dramatically Reduce Immigration to The United States
- The Literacy Test Did Not Go Far Enough For Republicans
- Adjusting The Quota System
- Immigration Sought Bar Races That Were Already Barred from Becoming Citizens
- Conclusion
In 1917, the U.S. Congress enacted the first widely restrictive immigration law. The uncertainty generated over national security during World War I made it possible for Congress to pass this legislation, and it included several important provisions that paved the way for the 1924 Act. The 1917 Act implemented a literacy test that required immigran...
The literacy test alone was not enough to prevent most potential immigrants from entering, so members of Congress sought a new way to restrict immigration in the 1920s. Immigration expert and Republican Senator from Vermont William P. Dillingham introduced a measure to create immigration quotas, which he set at three percent of the total population...
When the congressional debate over immigration began in 1924, the quota system was so well-established that no one questioned whether to maintain it, but rather discussed how to adjust it. Though there were advocates for raising quotas and allowing more people to enter, the champions of restriction triumphed. They created a plan that lowered the ex...
The 1924 Immigration Act also included a provision excluding from entry any alien who by virtue of race or nationality was ineligible for citizenship. Existing nationality laws dating from 1790 and 1870 excluded people of Asian lineage from naturalizing. As a result, the 1924 Act meant that even Asians not previously prevented from immigrating – th...
In all of its parts, the most basic purpose of the 1924 Immigration Act was to preserve the ideal of U.S. homogeneity. This notion of the ideal homogeneity was sharply racist and discriminated not only against Asians, Africans, and Latin Americans but also Europeans who were viewed as less desirable (Jews, Slavs, Greeks, etc.). Congress made it cle...
May 28, 2024 · T he Immigration Act of 1924 is arguably the most restrictive and racist immigration law ever to have been passed by the United States Congress. It was not unprecedented in its restrictive nature: since 1882, Congress had imposed qualitative exclusions on persons deemed likely to become public charges, or otherwise morally or physically deficient.
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Apr 23, 2024 · On May 26, 1924, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Johnson-Reed Act, the first federal law in American history designed to establish permanent, comprehensive restrictions on immigration. It came at the end of a long, contentious process that debated the nature of American citizenship and identity along with the perceived merits and hazards of mass immigration. The law is rightly regarded as ...
