Immigration+Acts+of+1917+and+1924

=The Immigration Acts of 1917 and 1924=

The Immigration Act of 1917, also known as the "**Asian Barred Zone Act**", was created on 4 February 1917. Because of how targeted it was towards Eastern Asia and the Pacific Islands, it was a very controversial act. "A geographical criterion was used to exclude Asian Indians, because their racial or ethnic status was unclear". The United States was very adamant about keeping the composition of their population "pure", meaning they did not want immigrants.

Source: http://www.pbs.org/rootsinthesand/a_exclusion.html

An even more controversial component of the 1917 Act was that it excluded all "aliens over sixteen years of age, physically capable of reading, who cannot read the English language, or some other language or dialect, including Hebrew or Yiddish". In 1891, Grover Cleveland vetoed the suggestion of issuing literacy tests. Asians had a difficult, if not impossible time entering the United States during this time.

View a document about the 1917 Immigration Act here (PDF)

The Immigration Act of 1924, also known as the **"National Origins Quota Act"**, was a Federal Law passed by the United States which __limited the number of immigrants who could legally enter the United States from any country__. The act was sponsored by Republican Senator David Reed and Republican Representative Albert Johnson. The act of 1924 ended open immigration from Europe, only allowing certain Europeans who had obtained proper quotas to enter.

View an actual Newspaper

The **quota system **was the way America limited the amount of European immigrants to an average of 155,000 each year; that is __15% of the previous average of 1 million European immigrants__ a year. The quotas were distributed as following- more than 2/3 of the quotas went to Northern and Western European countries, while less than 1/3 went to Eastern and Southern European countries. The ability to immigrate to the United States pretty much became dependent on race and nationality.

Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/European_immigration_to_the_United_States_1881-1940.png

Europeans were not the only ones limited from immigrating into America. Asian immigration was completely cut off by Asiatic exclusion. The reason for doing this? The United States Supreme Court claimed Asians were racially ineligible for citizenship. This part of the act specifically excluded the Japanese. For a more complete list of other Immigration acts and exclusions, please visit here.

Support towards the Immigration Act didn't really become popular until s__hortly after World War I.__ This is when Americans really started rejecting the whole "melting pot" idea. Americans were becoming more patriotic towards their country, hence creating hostility and racism towards people that didn't 'belong' there. Also, during the war, there was a great need for mass amounts of unskilled labour which was easily filled by immigrants. But after the war was cleaned up, there was no longer a need for immigrant workers or fighters.

Europeans and Asians were not the only ones trying to make it into the country. By 1930, a majority of the people expelled from the country were Mexicans. Mexican immigrants were caught and found guilty of unlawful entry. The problem was so bad, that entry without a valid passport or inspection became an offense. **The number of people removed from the United States rose from 2,500 in 1920 to 39,000 in 1930**.

After World War II, the National Origins Quota began to seem distasteful to Americans. Jews were not allowed to immigrate to The United States during WWII, so Americans did not want to be seen as evil after what happened to the Jews with the Holocaust. Americans did not want to be seen as discriminatory anymore. In 1965, the National Origins Quotas were abolished because Euro-American ethnic groups were beginning to influence urban politics.


 * Bibliography**

1. Braziel, Jana Evans. "History of Migration and Immigration Laws in the United  States." ACLAnet. N.p., 2000. Web. 25 Oct. 2010.

2. Martin, Waldo E., Jr., and Patricia Sullivan. "Immigration Act of 1924."  Civil Rights in the United States. Gale U.S. History in Context. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. .

3. "1917 Immigration Act." Spartacus. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2010.  .

