How the “Long” 1960s Changed Us
The 1965 Immigration Law: Its Roots
and Legacy
Why Immigration Laws?
• Controversial issue in American history
• Public and political attitudes toward immigrants and
immigration have changed over time
• Open borders?
• Colonies, states, the federal government
• Immigration policies: restriction to no restriction to
restriction of certain groups (whoever is considered
“undesirable” at the moment) to “the law that
changed the face of America”
Why Immigration Laws?
• Countries of origin
• Legal immigrants; illegal immigrants; refugees;
asylum seekers
• Push and pull factors of immigration: economic
conditions, religion, politics, technology
History of the U.S. immigration laws
• 1607 - 1882: colonial and state management of
immigration
• Some towns and colonies tried to restrict immigration
based on religion and ethnicity of immigrants; some
tried to attract different groups
• Criminals and the poor
• Disabled (MA in 1700)
• Head tax on all immigrants (PA in 1729)
• Founding Fathers’ opposition to widespread
acceptance of immigrants
• No federal restriction on immigration
• 1790 Naturalization Act
• 1795 Naturalization Act
• 1798 Alien Act and Naturalization Act
• States could regulate immigration – some did, some
did not → lack of uniformity
• 1875: SC decision called for federal regulation of
immigration
• 1820-1924 immigration
- 1820-1830: 151,824
- 1831-1840: 599,125
- 1841-1850: 1,713,251
- 1851-1860: 2,598,214
- 1861-1870: 2,314,824
- 1871-1880:
- 1881-1890:
- 1891-1900:
- 1901-1910:
- 1911-1920:
- 1921-1924:
2,812,191
5,246,613
3,687,564
8,795,386
5,735,811
2,344,599
“Old” v. “new” immigrants
• Nativism
• Native- born American
clubs were organized: called
for end of immigration or
limiting of immigration to
desirable groups
• Assimilation
• Know-Nothings (1850s)
• American Protective
Association (1880s, 1890s)
• Immigration Restriction
League (1890s-1920s)
• Ku Klux Klan (1920s)
1882 - 1921: the first period of federal
management of immigration
• 1875: prostitutes
• 1882: “lunatics” and “idiots,” convicts and those
likely to become public charge were to be denied
entry + Head tax of 50 cents imposed on each
immigrant
• 1882: Chinese Exclusion Act
• 1891: polygamists and “persons suffering from a
loathsome or a dangerous contagious disease”
• 1917 law: pre-inspection at the point of departure;
literacy test; “Asiatic Barred Zone”
1921 - 1965: the restrictive era
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Immigration to the U.S. resumed after WWI
Anti-immigrant sentiment
Calls for restrictions in immigration
Renewal of nativism
German-Americans
Red Scare
Immigrants from southern and eastern Europe
Catholics, Jews, different languages
• 1921: the First Quota Act
(Emergency Quota Act) – it
limited immigration in any given
year to 3% of each nationality
that lived in the U.S. in 1910
• 1924: the Second Quota Act
(National Origins Act) – limited
immigration in one year to 2% of
each nationality that lived in the
U.S. in 1890
• No immigration from Asia
• No restrictions on immigration
from countries in the Western
Hemisphere
• 70% - GB, Ir, Ger
Immigration reform and proposals for a
new law
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The Great Depression, WWII, the Cold War
1950s, 1960s
Civil rights movement, freedom, democracy
Economic growth and prosperity
Could the U.S. keep the restrictive law?
• 1952: McCarran-Walter Act
• Ended the policy of exclusion of different immigrant
groups from Asia including the Japanese and Koreans
in effect since the 1920s
• Race and ethnicity could no longer be used to prevent
immigration and naturalization
• Quotas were established for Asian countries
• Japan – 185; China - 105
• Truman vetoed the 1952 law
• 1953: Eisenhower called for an immigration law
that would “guard our legitimate national
interests and be faithful to our basic idea of
freedom and fairness to all”
• Kennedy: quota system is “nearly intolerable”
• Wanted a law that would “serve the national
interest and reflect in every detail the principals
of equality and human dignity to which our
nation subscribes.”
The Immigration and Nationality Act
(1965)
1. Abolished national origins quota system, but did not
get rid of quotas completely
2. Established world quota limit
• Quota of 170,000 for the Eastern Hemisphere
• Quota of 120,000 for the Western Hemisphere
• Country limit of 20,000
• Unlimited number of immigrants who were
immediate relatives of the U.S. citizens
3. Created preference system for family
reunification and immigrants with skills,
education
4. The government could not use race, sex,
nationality, place of birth when making decisions
about issuing of immigrant visas
• Johnson: "This bill we sign today is not a revolutionary
bill. It does not affect the lives of millions. It will not
restructure the shape of our daily lives.“ (October 3,
1965)
• It would repair “painful flaw in the fabric of American
justice.”
• Belief among supporters of the law that it would not
cause major changes in the U.S. immigration
• Quotas would not be used
• There would not be many people trying to enter the U.S.
through family reunification
• Europe
• Higher numbers of immigrants
• Transformation of ethnic and racial makeup of the U.S.
• Up to the 1960s, immigrants from Europe were
predominant group
• Beginning in the 1960s: European dominance in
immigration began to decline
• 1900: 90% of immigrants were from Europe; by the
1980s Europeans represented 11% of total number of
immigrants who came to the U.S.
• Growth in number of immigrants from two parts of the
world after 1965: Latin America and Asia
• Family reunification part
• “Brothers and sisters act”
• High-tech sector
• Reduced return migration
• Increased illegal immigration
• 20,000 visas for Mexico (400,000 immigrants from
Mexico were coming per year before this law)
• Immigration today
• Current law is based on the 1965 law
• Different proposals