Immigraton Laws

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and Russia
constituting more than half of the total. Until World War I, immigration had
generally increased in volume every year. From 1905 to 1914 an average of more
than a million immigrants entered the U.S. every year. With the start of the war,
the volume declined sharply, and the annual average from 1915 to 1918 was little
more than 250,000. In 1921 the number again rose; 800,000 immigrants were
admitted. Thereafter the number declined in response to new conditions in Europe
and to the limitations established by U.S. law.

The first measure restricting immigration enacted by Congress was a law in 1862
banning American vessels from transporting Chinese immigrants to the U.S.; 20
years later Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act excluding Chinese
immigrants.(Immigration) In 1875, 1882, and 1892, acts passed by Congress
provided for the examination of immigrants and for the exclusion from the U.S.
of convicts, polygamists, prostitutes, persons suffering from ...

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aliens.(Immigration)

After World War I, a marked increase in racism and the growth of isolationist
sentiment in the U.S. led to demands for further restrictive legislation. In
1921 a congressional statute provided for a quota system for immigrants, whereby
the number of aliens of any nationality admitted to the U.S. in a year could not
exceed 3 percent of the number of foreign-born residents of that nationality
living in the U.S. in 1910. The law applied to nations of Europe, the Middle
East, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Asian Russia, and certain islands in the
Atlantic and Pacific.

In 1924, the basic immigration quotas were changed; the new law provided for
annual immigration quotas ...

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