Immigration laws

« • The Immigration Act of 1924 (also known as the Johnson Act) aimed at freezing the current ethnic distribution in response to rising immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe, as well as Asia.

Introduced nationality quotas. • The National Origins Formula was established with the Immigration Act of 1924.

Total annual immigration was capped at 150,000.

Immigrants fit into two categories: those from quota-nations and those from non-quota nations.

Immigrant visas from quota-nations were restricted to the same ratio of residents from the country of origin out of 150,000 as the ratio of foreign-born nationals in the United States.

The percentage out of 150,000 was the relative number of visas a particular nation received.

Non-quota nations, notably those contiguous to the United States only had to prove an immigrant's residence in that country of origin for at least two years prior to emigration to the United States.

Laborers from Asiatic nations were excluded but exceptions existed for professionals, clergy, and students to obtain visas. 1903 Immigration law was consolidated.

Polygamists and political radicals were added to the exclusion list. 1906 Procedural safeguards for naturalization were enacted.

Knowledge of English was made a basic requirement. 1907 A bill increased the head tax on immigrants, and added people with physical or mental defects or tuberculosis and children unaccompanied by parents to the exclusion list.

Japanese immigration became restricted. 1917 Added to the exclusion list were illiterates, persons of psychopathic inferiority, men as well as women entering for immoral purposes, alcoholics, stowaways, and vagrants. 1921 The first quantitative immigration law was adopted.

It set temporary annual quotas according to nationality.

A book review of Not Like Us: Immigrants and Minorities in America, 1890- 1924, which discusses this period is available here. 1924 The first permanent immigration quota law established a preference quota system, nonquota status, and consular control system.

It also established the Border Patrol.. »