Immigration Act of 1924

Context

The Immigration Act of 1924 was a continuation of immigration-restricting laws that had begun in 1882 (the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Immigration Act of 1882). Until World War I, however, many of the acts had been aimed only at curtailing certain categories of immigrants (those who were incapable of working) rather than limiting immigration as a whole. This reflected America's desire to grow an industrial economy and the need to increase its workforce (particularly in the Northeast) in these factories without having to substantially increase wages. As America transitioned into the twentieth century, however, some anti-immigration politicians began to press for more restrictions to help protect their American blue-collar constituents, but rapid industrialization and social progressivism made this a difficult environment for the passage of such legislation.

With the onset of World War I, however, the political dynamic in America underwent a significant metamorphosis. America had always been a nation that was welcoming of immigrants to her lands, but the increasing numbers of immigrants fleeing the destruction in Europe led America's conservatives to try to find ways to curtail immigration. In 1917, the United States passed an act that mandated that all incoming immigrants over the age of sixteen must pass a literacy test in their native language. It also gave more executive authority to the immigration officials at America's entry points to deny individuals whom they suspected as being unfit for American citizenship. This act in addition created the Asiatic Barred Zone (much of eastern Asia and the Pacific Islands), which had the effect of sealing off America's West Coast from immigration. While immigration slowed greatly during the period of 1914–1918 (in large part owing to the use of civilian ocean liners to ferry troops and supplies to Europe), the end of the war and the wanton destruction that remained reopened the floodgates, and America once again found itself as a primary destination for European immigrants looking to escape the death and destruction of postwar Europe.

While the increased numbers of immigrants added to the already growing fears of xenophobic Americans, there was a greater concern politically of the implications of the influx of postwar immigrants: revolution. After the war, Europe had seen many of its governments (particularly in Eastern Europe) undergo monumental shifts to the left in political and economic ideology, most notably that of the Soviet Union, which became a Communist nation after the defeat of the Romanovs in the Russian Revolution. As the revolution developed and became successful, its ideologies spread beyond the Russian borders into Finland, Bulgaria, and Hungary and even into Germany, often with militant implications. This fear of anarchy and revolution coming to America only intensified American fears over the potential threat of immigrants coming into the United States. The overall dread resulted in the targeting for prosecution of men born outside the United States, as was the case in 1920 for Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian anarchists who were tried and convicted of murder in large part owing to their country of origin rather than a preponderance of evidence.

This fear and violence led the Republican Party to declare in its 1920 presidential platform that “no alien should become a citizen until he had become genuinely American,” a determination that they argued would become increasingly difficult to make if the numbers of immigrants remained unchecked. This effort to limit not only who could enter the United States but how many would drive the Republican majority Sixty-seventh Congress in the early years of the new decade (1921–1923). In 1920, Congress had attempted to pass a law limiting the number of immigrants from each country to 3 percent of their total population already present in the United States in 1910, but the measure had been vetoed by President Woodrow Wilson. With the election of Warren G. Harding, however, the new Congress was able to reintroduce the law, and in 1921 the bill became law. It was renewed for two years in 1922, marking a significant limitation to the number of immigrants coming to America for the first time in history.