A Summary of the Immigration Laws of the United States from 1882
Prior to 1882, there were not any formal acts that controlled immigration. Below is a brief summary of the Immigration Acts passed beginning in 1882. By the end of 1954, the transatlantic steamships and ocean liners were almost exclusively for pleasure trips. The Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives is primarily a resource for documents in the 1880-1954 time period.
1882
1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act was the first piece of legislation that limited immigration into the U.S. The 1882 Act called for a 10-year moratorium on Chinese entering the U.S. This act stemmed mainly from white agitation, much of it led by second generation, Irish Americans in San Francisco and Los Angeles against cheap Chinese labor. This 10-year ban was to be extended indefinitely in 1892.
1882 / 1891
1882 and 1891, Congressional laws were passed which prohibited immigrants who were paupers, insane or had a contagious disease. The government also instituted a 50-cent head tax on each immigrant.
1885
1885 the Contract Labor Law, which had allowed employers to bring immigrants into this country to work for cheap wages, was abolished.
1907
1907 President Theodore Roosevelt signed a "Gentlemen's Agreement" with Japan to stop the importation of Japanese laborers to America.
1917
1917, literacy tests were required of immigrants. Immigrants were required to write and read a language. This language did not have to be English. The 1917 Immigration Act increased the entry head tax to $8.
In the 1920's, Congress instituted a series of "quotas" on immigration.
1921
1921 Emergency Quota Act provided that, based on the 1910 census, three per cent of a European nationality that resided in the U.S. could be permitted to enter the country each year.
1924
1924 Johnson-Reed Act lowered this quota to two per cent and used the 1890 census. It also provided that in 1927 no more than 150,000 immigrants per year would be admitted on a national origins basis. These quota laws favored the Western European countries, such as England, France and Germany. No restrictions were placed on our Western Hemisphere neighbors such as Canada and Latin America. Asians were totally barred.
Another feature of selection which the 1924 law provided was the preference and non quota status given to certain relatives of American citizens—preferences for fathers and mothers, children under twenty-two and husbands—and the non quota status of wives and children under eighteen.
1930s and 1940s
The 1930's and 1940's found U.S. quotas going unfilled. This occurred because of the Depression and World War II.
After World War II, Congress, upon the urging of President Truman, made special provisions to allow displaced or homeless war victims to enter the U.S.
1952
The McCarran-Walter Act, an immigration law passed that kept a quota system with strong provisions against aliens with Communist or subversive backgrounds. The ban against Orientals was removed.
More Recent Immigration Policies
Current U.S. immigration policy is based on the Immigration Act of 1965, which ended the national origins quota system. But, the new law still has a limit on the number of immigrants that can be admitted in a single year. This limit favors countries in the Eastern Hemisphere, in that the Western quota is 120.000, while the Eastern is 170,000. The new act also provides for the quick admittance of immigrants with needed or vital skills, such as doctors and scientists.
