Anaya Nolan
The United States' first comprehensive federal immigration legislation was enacted in 1924, establishing visa requirements, the Border Patrol, and the illegal alien category. Early laws, such as the Naturalization Act of 1790, restricted citizenship to free whites. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first ethnic-specific restriction, and laws in 1921 and 1924 capped immigration and favoured northern and western Europeans. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 opened doors to non-Europeans, and the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act granted legalization to millions of unauthorized immigrants.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| First federal immigration law | 1924 |
| First federal immigration law chief architect | Republican congressman Albert Johnson |
| First federal immigration law characteristics | Visa requirements, the Border Patrol, and the category of the “illegal alien.” |
| First widely restrictive immigration law | 1917 |
| First act restricting immigration of a specific ethnic group | Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 |
| First law specifying who could become a citizen | 1790 |
| First law extending citizenship to those of African origin | 1870 |
| First law removing race as grounds for exclusion | 1952 |
| First law favoring family reunification and skilled immigrants | Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 |
| First law granting legalization to unauthorized immigrants | Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 |
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What You'll Learn
The 1924 Immigration Act
The Immigration Act of 1924, also known as the Johnson-Reed Act, was a federal law that imposed strict limits on immigration to the United States. It was signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge on May 26, 1924, and was the culmination of a long and contentious process that debated American citizenship, identity, and the perceived pros and cons of mass immigration.
The 1924 Act established a system of quotas for immigrants based on race and nationality, favouring northern and western European countries. It built upon the 1921 legislation, further reducing the nationality quota from 3% to 2% and capping total immigration at 165,000. This was an 80% reduction compared to the yearly average before 1914. The Act also completely barred immigration from Asia, targeting rising Asian immigration, particularly from Japan, and preserving the racial composition of the country.
The 1924 Act was influenced by the Immigration Restriction League, formed in 1894 by a group of Harvard-educated Boston "Brahmins". They advocated for preserving the Anglo-Saxon "stock" of America and promoted the Nordic theory of racial supremacy, which associated Anglo-Protestantism with American greatness. This ideology shaped the Act's distinction between “old immigrants” (from Britain, Germany, and Scandinavia) and “new immigrants” (from Latin America, Asia, and Eastern Europe), whom they deemed inferior and a threat to American society.
The Act also authorized the creation of the U.S. Border Patrol and established a “consular control system," requiring immigrants to obtain visas from U.S. consulates before entering the country. It defined the term "immigrant" and categorized other entries as "non-immigrants" or temporary visitors, with specific classes of admission. The Act also established preferences within the quota system for certain relatives of U.S. residents, including their spouses, parents, and unmarried children under a certain age.
The Immigration Act of 1924 had a significant impact, shaping immigration patterns and contributing to the decline of immigration to historic lows over the following decades. It remained in effect until 1952, when it was revised by the Immigration and Nationality Act, which removed race as a criterion for exclusion and prioritized family reunification and skilled immigrants.
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Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
The United States began regulating immigration soon after it won independence from Great Britain. A 1790 law was the first to specify who could become a citizen, limiting that privilege to free whites of “good moral character” who had lived in the U.S. for at least two years.
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law made exceptions for travelers and diplomats. The Act also denied Chinese residents already in the US the ability to become citizens and Chinese people traveling in or out of the country were required to carry a certificate identifying their status or risk deportation. It was the first significant law restricting immigration into the country.
The 1882 exclusion act also placed new requirements on Chinese who had already entered the country. If they left the United States, they had to obtain certifications for re-entry. Congress refused federal courts the right to grant citizenship to Chinese resident aliens, although these courts could still deport them. The act defined excludables as "skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining". Thus, very few Chinese could enter the country under the 1882 law.
The Chinese Exclusion Act was preceded by growing anti-Chinese sentiment, anti-Chinese violence, and various policies targeting Chinese migrants. The act followed the Angell Treaty of 1880, which allowed the US to restrict Chinese immigration. When the exclusion act expired in 1892, Congress extended it for 10 years in the form of the Geary Act. This extension, made permanent in 1902, added restrictions by requiring each Chinese resident to register and obtain a certificate of residence. Without a certificate, they faced deportation.
The Chinese Exclusion Acts were not repealed until 1943, and then only in the interests of aiding the morale of a wartime ally during World War II.
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Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952
The United States began regulating immigration soon after it won independence from Great Britain. Early legislation tended to favour Europeans, but this began to shift in 1965 when a law opened the doors to immigrants from other parts of the world.
One of the earliest immigration laws was the Naturalization Act of 1790, which was the first to specify who could become a US citizen. Citizenship was limited to "free white people" of "good moral character" who had lived in the US for at least two years.
In 1875, a series of immigration restrictions were enacted, and the right of citizenship was extended to people of African origin in 1870.
The Immigration Act of 1924 (The Johnson-Reed Act) established a national origins quota system that favoured immigration from Northern and Western Europe. This effectively restricted immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe and completely banned immigration from most Asian countries.
The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) was enacted in 1952 and has been amended many times since. The INA collected and reorganised many provisions of immigration law. The 1952 Act upheld the national origins quota system established in 1924, with 85% of the 154,277 visas available annually allotted to individuals of Northern and Western European lineage. However, it also abolished racial restrictions found in previous US immigration and naturalisation statutes, repealing the remaining measures that excluded Asian immigrants. Each Asian country was allotted a minimum quota of 100 visas per year, and laws preventing Asians from becoming naturalised US citizens were eliminated. Nevertheless, the Act continued to discriminate against Asians, as people of Asian descent who were citizens of non-Asian countries also counted towards the quota of their ancestral Asian country.
The 1952 Act also introduced a system of preferences based on skill sets and family reunification. It defined three types of immigrants: those with special skills or US-based relatives (who were exempt from quotas and admitted without restriction); average immigrants (whose numbers were not supposed to exceed 270,000 per year); and refugees. The Act also expanded the definition of the "United States" for nationality purposes to include Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
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Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986
The United States began regulating immigration soon after it gained independence from Great Britain. The laws that have been enacted since then have reflected the politics and migrant flows of the times. Early legislation tended to impose limits that favored Europeans. However, a sweeping 1965 law opened the doors to immigrants from other parts of the world.
In 1986, Congress enacted another major law – the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) – that granted legalization to millions of unauthorized immigrants, mainly from Latin America, who met certain conditions. The act was also known as the Simpson-Mazzoli Act or the Reagan Amnesty. It was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on November 6, 1986.
The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 altered US immigration law by making it illegal to knowingly hire illegal immigrants and establishing financial and other penalties for companies that employed illegal immigrants. The act also required employers to attest to their employees' immigration status. It imposed sanctions on employers who hired unauthorized immigrants, making them subject to civil and criminal penalties. The act also created the H-2A visa and H-2B visa categories, for temporary agricultural and non-agricultural workers, respectively.
The Immigration Reform and Control Act legalized most undocumented immigrants who had arrived in the country before January 1, 1982. Nearly three million people applied for legalization under the act, with approximately 2.7 million people ultimately approved for permanent residence. The act also legalized certain seasonal agricultural undocumented migrants and undocumented migrants who had entered the United States before January 1, 1982, and had resided in the country continuously since then. Farm workers who could validate at least ninety days of employment also qualified for lawful permanent residency.
The act also authorized FY 1988 through 1991 appropriations for State legalization impact assistance grants. It permitted states to spend unused funds through FY 1994 and prohibited offsets for Medicaid and supplemental security income costs.
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1965 Immigration and Nationality Act
The United States began regulating immigration soon after it gained independence from Great Britain. Early legislation tended to favour Europeans, but this changed with the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which opened the doors to immigrants from other parts of the world.
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart-Celler Act, was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on October 3, 1965, at the foot of the Statue of Liberty. The act was a response to both foreign and domestic pressures to change the nation-based formula, which was regarded as a system that discriminated based on an individual's place of birth. The United Nations and other international organizations, as well as new independent nations and former military allies, aimed to delegitimize discriminatory immigration, naturalization, and regulations abroad. In the United States, the national-based formula had been under scrutiny for years. In 1952, President Truman directed the Commission on Immigration and Naturalization to investigate and produce a report on the current immigration regulations. The resulting report, "Whom We Shall Welcome," served as the blueprint for the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 abolished the quota system that had been in place for decades, which severely restricted the number of people from outside Western Europe eligible to settle in the United States. The act ended preferences for white immigrants, which dated back to the 18th century and had been formalized in a 1790 law restricting naturalized citizenship to "free white persons of good moral character." The new law created a preference system that focused on immigrants' skills and family relations with citizens or U.S. residents. It also imposed the first limits on immigration from the Western Hemisphere, as Latin Americans had previously been allowed to enter the U.S. with few restrictions.
The passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 significantly altered the demographic mix in the country. Since the enactment of the act, immigration has been dominated by people born in Asia and Latin America, rather than Europe. The act also paved the way for the entrance of Indochinese refugees fleeing war violence in the 1970s and later relief for other nationalities, including Chinese, Nicaraguans, and Haitians.
In the years following the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, several other major laws and presidential actions have been enacted to address concerns about refugees, unauthorized immigration, and terrorism. In 1986, Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act, which granted legalization to millions of unauthorized immigrants, mainly from Latin America, who met certain conditions. Subsequent laws in 1996, 2002, and 2006 emphasized border control and tightened admissions eligibility. More recently, in 2012 and 2014, President Obama took executive action to allow young adults brought to the country illegally to apply for deportation relief and a work permit, and expanded this program to include some unauthorized immigrant parents of U.S.-born children.
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Frequently asked questions
The US began regulating immigration soon after it gained independence from Great Britain. The First Naturalization Act of 1790 was the first law to specify who could become a citizen, limiting this privilege to ""free whites" of "good moral character" who had lived in the US for at least two years.
The Immigration Act of 1924, also known as the Johnson-Reed Act, was the first comprehensive federal immigration legislation in the US. It solidified features of the immigration system that remain today, including visa requirements, the Border Patrol, and the category of the "illegal alien".
The 1924 Act numerically limited immigration for the first time in US history, with each nationality receiving a quota based on its representation in past census figures. It also included a provision excluding from entry any alien who, by virtue of race or nationality, was ineligible for citizenship, affecting Asians in particular.
Yes, there have been several other significant changes to US immigration laws. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first act to restrict immigration based on a specific ethnic group, banning Chinese immigration for 10 years. This was extended in 1892 and made permanent in 1902, before finally being repealed in 1943. The Immigration Act of 1917 restricted immigration from the "barred zone", which included the Middle East and Southeast Asia. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 officially ended Asian exclusion. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 granted legalisation to millions of unauthorised immigrants, mainly from Latin America. Finally, the landmark Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 created a new system favouring family reunification and skilled immigrants, opening the doors to immigrants from outside of Europe.
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