Supporting Question 2: How has the US immigration system changed over time?

Assignment: 1.) Read and annotate (highlight & take notes) the attached article. 2.) Complete the graphic organizer and questions below with evidence from your annotated notes comparing the three historical approaches to immigration policy.

Primary Sources:

Source A: OurDocuments.gov, description of the 1882 law restricting immigrants from China, “Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)” (excerpt), 1989

Source B: United States Department of State, Office of the Historian, description of the immigration law introducing quotas, “The Immigration Act of 1924 (the Johnson-Reed Act)” (excerpts), no date

Source C:  Charles B. Keely, article describing effects of the 1965 immigration law, “Effects of the Immigration Act of 1965 on Selected Population Characteristics of Immigrants to the United States” (excerpts), Demography, May 1971

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Source A: OurDocuments.gov, description of the 1882 law restricting immigrants from China, “Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)” (excerpt), 1989

The Chinese Exclusion Act was approved on May 6, 1882. It was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States.

In the spring of 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur. This act provided an absolute 10-year moratorium on Chinese labor immigration. For the first time, Federal law proscribed entry of an ethnic working group on the premise that it endangered the good order of certain localities.

The Chinese Exclusion Act required the few non laborers who sought entry to obtain certification from the Chinese government that they were qualified to immigrate. But this group found it increasingly difficult to prove that they were not laborers because the 1882 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 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 to re-enter. Congress, moreover, refused State and Federal courts the right to grant citizenship to Chinese resident aliens, although these courts could still deport them.

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, she or he faced deportation..

Source B: United States Department of State, Office of the Historian, description of the immigration law introducing quotas, “The Immigration Act of 1924 (the Johnson-Reed Act)” (excerpts), no date

The Immigration Act of 1924 limited the number of immigrants allowed entry into the United States through a national origins quota. The quota provided immigration visas to two percent of the total number of people of each nationality in the United States as of the 1890 national census. It completely excluded immigrants from Asia.…

[In 1921], immigration expert and Republican Senator from Vermont William P. Dillingham introduced a measure to create immigration quotas, which he set at three percent of the total population of the foreign-born of each nationality in the United States as recorded in the 1910 census. This put the total number of visas available each year to new immigrants at 350,000. It did not, however, establish quotas of any kind for residents of the Western Hemisphere.…

When the congressional debate over immigration began in 1924, the quota system was so well-established that no one questioned whether to maintain it, but rather discussed how to adjust it. Though there were advocates for raising quotas and allowing more people to enter, the champions of restriction triumphed. They created a plan that lowered the existing quota from three to two percent of the foreign born population. They also pushed back the year on which quota calculations were based from 1910 to 1890.

Another change to the quota altered the basis of the quota calculations. The quota had been based on the number of people born outside of the United States, or the number of immigrants in the United States. The new law traced the origins of the whole of the U.S. population, including natural-born citizens. The new quota calculations included large numbers of people of British descent whose families were long resident in the United States. As a result, the percentage of visas available to individuals from the British Isles and Western Europe increased, but newer immigration from other areas like Southern and Eastern Europe was limited.

Source C:  Charles B. Keely, article describing effects of the 1965 immigration law, “Effects of the Immigration Act of 1965 on Selected Population Characteristics of Immigrants to the United States” (excerpts), Demography, May 1971

The basic policy change in the 1965 Act was the abolition of the national origins quota system…. All future immigrants would compete on a first-come, first-served basis for the limited immigrant visas without regard to country of origin.

An annual ceiling of 170,000 immigrant visas (exclusive of parents, spouses, and unmarried children of United States citizens) was established for all countries outside the Western Hemisphere. After July1, 1968, immigrants from these non-Western Hemisphere countries would enter on a first-come, first-served basis, regardless of place of birth or racial ancestry within a system of preference categories. Provision was also made that no more than 20,000 immigrants from any one non-Western Hemisphere country could enter during each fiscal year. An annual ceiling of 120,000 visas was imposed on the Western Hemisphere. The preference system would not be applied to immigrants from this part of the world….

A second important change in immigration policy contained in the 1965 Act was the placing of greater emphasis on family relationships as a basis for selection of immigrants. This change was accomplished in two ways. First, parents of United States citizens over the age of 21 were added to the list of immigrants not subject to numerical limitations of any sort. Second, the order and size of preference categories was altered so that family reunification was emphasized….Another difference is the system distinguishes between levels of skills giving precedence to the professional and higher level skills.

Preference System, Immigration Act of 1965

(1) First preference: Unmarried sons and daughters of U.S. citizens.

(2) Second preference: Spouse and unmarried sons and daughters of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence.

(3) Third preference: Members of the professions of scientists and artists of exceptional ability.

(4) Fourth preference: Married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens.

(5) Fifth preference: Brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens.

(6) Sixth preference: Skilled and unskilled workers in occupations for which labor is in short supply in U.S.

(7) Seventh preference: Refugees to whom conditional entry or adjustment of status may be granted.

(8) Non preference: Any applicant not entitled to one of the above preferences.

Assignment: Complete the graphic organizer below with evidence from your annotated notes comparing the three historical approaches to immigration policy.

1.) How are the three immigration policies similar? Explain.

2.) How are the three immigration policies different? Explain.