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Exclusion and the Golden Door:
U.S. Immigration Policy
Jonathan T. Lyons
Political Science
Capstone Fall 2007
Overview
• Policy History from
1790-Present
• How stereotypes and
xenophobia influenced
policy development
• Current Status of
Immigration
First Immigration Legislation
• Act of March 26th, 1790
– Set residency requirement for citizenship at 2
years
• Act of January 29th, 1795
– Requirement amended to 5 years
• Federalists vs. Jeffersonians
Alien and Sedition Acts (1798)
• Naturalization Act
• Alien and Alien
Enemy Acts
• Sedition Act-
Infringement on Free
Speech
John Adams
Open-Door Era (1790-1882)
• Federalist acts expired with Thomas Jefferson Presidency
• After the founding of the U.S. immigration is encouraged
• 1819- “An act regulating passenger ships and vessels” – Began recording the number
of immigrants entering the United States
Thomas Jefferson
Open-Door Era
• 1821-1830: 143,439 immigrants arrive
• President John Tyler encourages immigration
in his message to the 22nd Congress in 1841
• “We hold out the to the people of other
countries an invitation to come and settle
among us”
Opposition to Early Immigration
• The Irish Potato Famine (1845-1851) and crop failures in Germany resulted in heavy Irish/German immigration
• Irish immigrants are almost exclusively Catholic, German immigrants have large Catholic segment
• Nativist sentiments emerged in northern cities such as Boston and New York
The Gold Rush: Immigration Explosion
• 1848-James W. Marshall discovers gold in the American River outside Sacramento
• Gold discovery inspires an explosion in immigration, especially from China
• 1841-1850: 1,713,251 immigrants arrive
• 1850-United States census records the “nativity” of citizens
Know-Nothing Movement
(American Party)
• Began as the Order of the
Star Spangled Banner
– Members had to be native-
born white Protestants
– Their oath: “to resist the
insidious policy of the
Church of Rome…by
placing in all offices
native-born Protestant
citizens”
Know-Nothing Party Flag
Open-Door Era
• 1851-1870: 4,913,039 immigrants arrive
• 1862-Homestead Act
• 1863-Central Pacific and Union Pacific hire
Chinese and Irish laborers respectively to
construct first transcontinental railroad
– Completed at Promontory Summit, Utah on
May 10th, 1869
Chinese Exclusion Act
• Signed May 6th, 1882
• Reaction to rapid expansion of Chinese
immigration
• First act directed at a nationality
• Beginning of “Door-Ajar” Era
Door-Ajar Era
• January 1st, 1892-Ellis Island opens
• May 1892-Geary Act – Extends exclusion of
Chinese 10 additional years
– Required all Chinese to obtain a certificate of residence within one year
– Excluded Chinese from being witnesses
Door-Ajar Era
• 1904-Chinese Exclusion Act extended indefinitely
• Immigration Act of February 20th, 1907
• Created the Dillingham Commission
– Distinguished between “old” and “new” immigrants
– Conclusions led to the establishment of Quota Acts
• Immigration Act of 1917-Asiatic Barred Zone
Asiatic Barred Zone
Quota System
• Began with Emergency Quota Act of 1921
• Immigrants could only constitute 3% of their country’s existing population in the U.S. according to 1910 census data
• 357,000 per year
• President Calvin Coolidge: “America is for Americans”
Calvin Coolidge
Quota System
• Albert Johnson-chairman of House of
Representatives C.I.N.
• Johnson-Reed Immigration Act of 1924
– Changed quota to 2% of resident nationalities
– Reduced annual total immigration to 150,000
– Shifted back to 1890 census as benchmark
National Origins System
• Created in the Johnson-Reed Act but
delayed until 1929
• Eugenics-driven policy
• “Encouraged” immigration of “old”
Northwestern Europeans and discouraged
“new” immigration from Southeastern
Europe
Immigration During Quota System
• National Origins made no specifications against immigrants from Western Hemisphere
• Coolidge saw limits on this type of immigration as counterproductive
• Mexicans welcomed during labor shortage of World War I, then deported during Great Depression
Bracero Program
• 1942-Agreement between Mexico and U.S.
– Contracted over 4.5 million Mexican nationals for work on U.S. farms
– “Mojados” undocumented Mexican laborers
Bracero Program
• Postwar economy was strong, due in part to
Bracero labor
• Mexican laborers filled void left by
exclusion of Asian immigrants and National
Origin Systems
• 1954- “Operation Wetback” enacted to stem
the tide of undocumented laborers
Civil Rights Legislation
• December 31, 1964-Bracero Program ends
• Immigration Act of 1965
– Ended the quota system
– First regulation of Western Hemisphere immigration
– Set limit of 20,000 visas per year on nations of Eastern Hemisphere
Lyndon B. Johnson
Shift in Ethnicity
• Act of 1965 stimulated Asian immigration
• Western Europe was economically prosperous, Eastern Europe under Soviet influence
• Increase in refugees from Latin American and Asian countries during wartime
Illegal Immigration
• 1980-number of legal immigrants entering annually reaches 500,000
• 1986-Immigration Reform and Control Act
– Placed sanctions on employers who hired illegal immigrants
– Offered amnesty, 2 million undocumented immigrants gained eventual citizenship
Proposition 187
• Passed by California
in 1994
• Denied public
benefits to illegal
aliens
• Immediately blocked
and then overturned
by Supreme Court in
1998
Gray Davis
Post 9/11 Immigration Policy
• March 1, 2003-INS
transitions into
U.S.C.I.S.
• Department of
Homeland Security
• Creation of
Immigration Customs
and Enforcement
Immigration and Customs
Enforcement
• J.W. Barnes, Senior Special Agent
• Current illegal population grossly
underestimated
• Border towns controlled, deserts are a
revolving door
• Only illegal immigrants deported easily are
those with a criminal record
Proposed Legislation
• Amnesty
• Real ID
• Guest-Worker Program
• Project 28
• June 28th, 2007-Senate votes to block
massive reform of U.S. immigration policy
2008 Presidential Candidates
Candidates Statements and Recent
Voting
• Clinton and Obama-both gave speeches
using the phrase “out of the shadows”
• In favor of C.I.R.A. of 2006
• Huckabee-voting record favors helping
illegal aliens within U.S.
• Romney-empowered MA police to arrest
and deport illegal aliens
Conclusions
• Stereotypes and anti-foreign sentiments
influenced policy development
• Current policy in need of overhaul
• How will U.S. immigration policy further
develop?
Further Reading
• Beasley, Vanessa B., ed. 2006. Who Belongs in America? Presidents, Rhetoric, and Immigration. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press
• Daniels, Roger. 2004. Guarding the Golden Door: American Immigration Policy and Immigrants Since 1882. New York, NY: Hill and Wang Publishing
• Hutchinson, E.P. 1981. Legislative History of American Immigration Policy 1798-1965. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press
• King, Desmond. 2000. Making Americans: Immigration, Race, and the Origins of the Diverse Democracy. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press