Exclusion and the Golden Door: U.S. Immigration Policy

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Exclusion and the Golden Door U.S. Immigration
Policy

• Jonathan T. Lyons
• Political Science
• Capstone Fall 2007

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Overview

• Policy History from 1790-Present
• How stereotypes and xenophobia influenced policy
  development
• Current Status of Immigration

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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

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Alien and Sedition Acts (1798)

• Naturalization Act
• Alien and Alien Enemy Acts
• Sedition Act-Infringement on Free Speech

John Adams
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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
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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

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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

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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

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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 Romeby placing in all offices
  native-born Protestant citizens

Know-Nothing Party Flag
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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

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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

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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

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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

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Asiatic Barred Zone
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Quota System

• Began with Emergency Quota Act of 1921
• Immigrants could only constitute 3 of their
  countrys existing population in the U.S.
  according to 1910 census data
• 357,000 per year
• President Calvin Coolidge America is for
  Americans

Calvin Coolidge
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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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
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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

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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

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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
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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

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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

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Proposed Legislation

• Amnesty
• Real ID
• Guest-Worker Program
• Project 28
• June 28th, 2007-Senate votes to block massive
  reform of U.S. immigration policy

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2008 Presidential Candidates
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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

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Conclusions

• Stereotypes and anti-foreign sentiments
  influenced policy development
• Current policy in need of overhaul
• How will U.S. immigration policy further develop?

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Further Reading

• Beasley, Vanessa B., ed. 2006. Who Belongs in
  America? Presidents, Rhetoric, and Immigration.
  College Station, TX Texas AM 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