Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

1
Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

• U.S. Immigration An Historical Perspective

www.sojo.net
2
U.S. Immigration An Historical Perspective
The U.S. has always been a proud nation of
immigrants, but we have also struggled throughout
our history in accepting nearly every wave of
immigrants who has arrived. Periods of acceptance
have alternated with times of fear and exclusion.
In the past, Chinese, Italians, and Irish
immigrants - among other groups - have faced
harsh intolerance due to fears around economic
competition and cultural differences. These same
fears drive discrimination against Latino
immigrants today.

1921 Emergency Quota Act This first quantitative
immigration law sets temporary annual quotas
according to nationality. It was heavily weighted
in favor of natives of Northern and Western
Europe. The main reason for passing the act was
that the flood of immigrants in recent years had
negative wage effects on native-born Americans.
This led to increasing support for immigration
restrictions. Another factor was the decreased
political power of immigrant groups.
1882 Chinese Exclusion Act The Chinese came to
America in large numbers during the 1849
California Gold Rush and in the 1860s when the
Central Pacific Railroad recruited large labor
gangs to build its portion of the
Transcontinental Railroad. At first, when surface
gold was plentiful, the Chinese were tolerated
and well-received. As gold became scarcer and
competition increased, animosity increased toward
Chinese immigrants and other foreigners. The
Chinese Exclusion Act was the first and only
explicitly race-based immigration act. It
suspended Chinese immigration and barred Chinese
in the U.S. from citizenship. It was repealed in
1943.
1924 National Origins Act The National
Origins Act replaced the Emergency Quota Act. Its
purpose was to further restrict immigration of
Southern and Eastern Europeans (who had begun to
enter the country in large numbers beginning in
the 1890s), as well as East Asians and South
Asians (who were prohibited from immigrating
entirely). It governed U.S. immigration policy
until 1952.
3
1952 McCarran-Walter Act During the Cold
War-era, U.S. immigration policy reflected the
fight against Communist-led countries. The
McCarran-Walter Act assigned strict quotas
limiting anyone who wished to enter the U.S. from
an undesirable part of the world. It reaffirmed
the National Origins quota system limited
immigration from the Eastern Hemisphere while
leaving the Western Hemisphere unrestricted and
tightened security, screening standards, and
procedures. It eliminated race, per se, as a bar
to immigration. Strict quotas were set on Asian
immigration Japan's quota was set at 185
immigrants annually, China's stayed at 105, other
Asian countries were given 100 each.
1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act Similar
to today, the United States was struggling with
the issue of unauthorized immigration and
immigration reform in the mid-1980s. The 1986
Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) was the
product of that struggle, and provides valuable
lessons as immigration reform options are
considered today. The IRCA legalized 3 million
immigrants who had resided in the U.S. without
proper documentation since January 1, 1982, and
created a new classification of temporary
agricultural workers. It also established
sanctions for employers who hired illegal
immigrants, but was never effectively enforced.

• Citations
• http//www.ellisislandimmigrants.org/ellis_island_
  immigrants.htm
• http//modelminority.com/modules.php?nameNewsfil
  earticlesid73
• Kennedy, John F. A Nation of Immigrants. New
  York Harper Perennial, 2008.

1965 Immigration and Nationality Act The
liberalization of immigration policy reflected in
the 1965 legislation can be understood as part of
the evolutionary trend in federal policy after
World War II to end legal discrimination based on
race and ethnicity essentially, the immigration
bill was seen as an extension of the civil rights
movement, and a symbolic one at that, expected to
bring few changes in its wake. This law
eliminated the previous quota system, and set
limits on Western Hemisphere immigration to
120,000 per year, and the Eastern Hemisphere to
170,000.
Prepared for Christians for Comprehensive
Immigration Reform (CCIR) by Carolyn Delossantos
4

• When a stranger resides with you in your land,
  you shall not oppress the stranger. The stranger
  who resides with you shall be to you as the
  citizen among you. You shall love the stranger as
  yourself, for you were strangers in the land of
  Egypt I am the Lord your God.
• Leviticus 1933-34
• Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform
  represents a coalition of Christian
  organizations, churches, and leaders, from across
  the theological and political spectrum, united in
  support of comprehensive immigration reform.
  Despite our differences on other issues, we are
  working together to revive comprehensive
  immigration reform as soon as possible, because
  we share a set of common moral and theological
  principles that compel us to love and care for
  the stranger among us.

Sojourners/CCIR 3333 14th Street NW, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20010  Phone [phone] Fax
202.328.8757 sojourners_at_sojo.net