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CHAPTER I

UNITED STATES IMMIGRATION LAW AND POLICY

A.

HISTORICAL REVIEW OF U.S. IMMIGRATION POLICY

The history of Immigration in the United States is a chronicle of the conflicting philosophies of economics, sociology, politics, and of compassion and prejudice. Immigration to the Colonies had its beginnings in the early 1600's when a few hundred colonists established settlements at Jamestown and Plymouth. Some two and a half centuries later, more than 10 million more had followed the original vanguard. In 1866 the Statue of Liberty was dedicated and still bears an inscription familiar to most of us:

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:

I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

The spirit of that inscription has in the past generally,

though not always, reflected the viewpoint of the American people.

Period of Unrestricted Immigration

Despite some misgivings, the general attitude of the original 13 Colonies was to encourage immigration. Such encouragement was not motivated merely by a spirit of altruism, for immigrants represented a solution to a chronic labor shortage, the means of promoting land settlement of

a sparsely populated country and its resources.

During the first 100 years following the founding

of our country, there was little legislation affecting

immigration.

The act of March 2, 1819 marked the

beginning of so-called steerage legislation which sought
to improve living conditions on ships bringing immigrants
to the United States. In 1875 a statute barred the
admission of convicts and prostitutes. This was followed
in 1882 by the adoption of the first general immigration
statute barring the entry of convicts, mental incompetents,
and persons likely to become public charges. In the same
year, the Chinese Exclusion Act became law and remained
in effect until it was repealed in 1943.

In 1885 and 1887 Congress passed the contract labor laws, which were designed to end the practice of importing cheap foreign labor under labor contracts which adversely affected the labor market in the United States.

Period of Qualitative Controls

These individual immigration laws were codified in 1891 and began a period of qualitative controls. The act increased the number of classes of aliens who were to be excluded, including polygamists, those convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude, paupers, and those afflicted with a dangerous disease. Insane persons, epileptics, professional beggars, and anarchists were added soon thereafter. Aliens who had entered illegally were to be deported within

one year.

From 1900-1910, over four million immigrants were

admitted primarily from southern and eastern Europe in contrast to previous migrations from northern Europe. The surging tide of immigration during this period created uneasiness, largely due to economic uncertainty. In 1917 Congress passed another comprehensive revision of the immigration laws which included an English literacy test, excluded Asians, and again provided for the deportation of aliens who had entered the United States illegally. Period of Qualitative and Quantitative Controls

Until 1921, immigration legislation had been concerned solely with qualitative factors relating to immigrants, and no restriction had been placed on the number of entrants. After World War I, immigration began to increase, leading to demands for restrictions to dam the expected flood of immigrants from the war-devastated countries of Europe. A lagging economy and an increasingly isolationist mood in the country strengthened these demands.

The ensuing Quota Law of 1921 represented a drastic change in American immigration policy. Introducing numerical limitations on immigration, the act limited the number of aliens of any nationality entering the United States to three percent of foreign-born persons of that nationality who lived in the United States in 1910. A ceiling of 350,000 was placed on the total number of aliens who could be admitted as immigrants during any one year.

The policy of numerical restrictions became permanent through the enactment of the Immigration Act of 1924 designed to supplement the qualitative restrictions of the 1917 act. A national origins formula was adopted which eventually based a quota for each nationality on the number of persons of that national origin in the United States in 1920. Under this formula the number of persons coming from southern and eastern Europe fell sharply. A ceiling of approximately 150,000 was placed on the number of quota immigrants who were permitted to enter each year. However, the act also established certain classes of non-quota aliens able to enter in unrestricted numbers. These included natives of Western Hemisphere countries, alien wives and children of American citizens and returning lawful residents. In addition, the act required each intending immigrant to obtain a visa abroad from a United States consular officer and a sponsor in the U.S. Persons entering in violation of the visa or quota

requirements could be deported without time limitation.

To exclude Asians, another provision barred ineligible aliens from acquiring citizenship.

The basic economic and sociological premise of the 1924 act was that more than 150,000 immigrants per year might be detrimental to the country. The next premise was

that maintaining the national origins make-up of the existing population by rationing the quotas in that proportion was

a desirable end. Compassion gave special status to the wives and children of United States citizens, even though this might distort the mix. Other considerations, perhaps political, permitted immigration of Western Hemisphere natives without regard to numbers or to the percentage of such people in the make-up of the population. doubtless excluded Asians. Although the Immigration Acts of 1917 and 1924 remained substantially unchanged until 1952, some restrictions were relaxed by humanitarian considerations related to the flight of refugees from Communist countries 2/ in the post-World War II era.

Prejudice

2/ The War Brides Act of 1945 allowed admission of 118,000 aliens, and the Fiances Act of 1946 brought 5,000 aliens. The Displaced Persons Act of 1948 authorized admission of about 400,000 persons unable to remain in Germany, Italy and Austria. The Refugee Relief Act of 1953 permitted 214,000 refugees to be admitted in three and a half years. Emergency measures for Hungarian and Cuban refugees followed. Most recently Vietnamese refugees were paroled into the United States.

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