One Mighty and Irresistible Tide: The Epic Struggle Over American Immigration, 1924-1965, Yang - B

     In 1924, the US proscribed immigration in, and limited almost all immigrants to the northern European countries that had been the first to populate America. Those from eastern and southern Europe, as well as those from Asia, were not wanted and were not allowed. Over the next forty years, immigration came to a near halt and only a few gave consideration to reinstating America as a 'melting pot'. The 1965 changes in the system unintentionally set America on a path that will someday lead to a non-white majority. 

     The 1924 law was a direct reaction to the decade from 1905-14, when millions came from Italy, Poland, and Russia; amongst them were innumerable Jews. The establishment said they would not assimilate. Future immigration would be based on the ethnic percentages that reflected America in 1890, before all the undesirables came. The law was supported by the American Federation of Labor, which feared that wages would be suppressed, and by the Immigration Reform League which simply did not want non-Nordics in the country. A fear of communism was also rampant after the Russian Revolution. For those from the western states, the undesirables were Asians. The country had passed The Chinese Exclusion Act in the 19th century. The new 1924 law also excluded Japanese. Italians and Jews, according to one eugenicist, would make America "darker in pigmentation, smaller in stature, more mercurial, more given to crimes of larceny, kidnapping, assault, murder and rape."

     As Europe came to grips with the rise of Nazism, the national origins quota system might have allowed some to enter. However, a directive by Pres. Hoover stymied almost all immigration by providing that visas would only be available to those who would not become a financial burden to America.  America's refusal to consider helping the Jews of Europe in the 1930's and 40's kept the door closed to many, many in need. After the war, Pres. Truman ended the financial burden obstruction in an attempt to aid the hundreds of thousands of displaced persons in Europe.  He asked Congress to allow displaced persons to exceed the annual national origins quota. A 1948 bill allowed in only 100,000 people; two years later, and with the help of a Democratic Congress, the number was raised to 400,000.  

    Throughout the 1950's, there were small modifications made to the national origins system, but the conservatives and anti-communists held their ground. JFK came to office fully supporting a whole scale adjustment to the immigration system. But, like his civil rights legislation, reform of immigration was blocked by the unholy alliance of southern Democrats and western Republicans. A bill was introduced that established two criteria for immigration: one was people of ability who could add to the national welfare and the second was reuniting families. Kennedy's assassination and Johnson's landslide election led to a torrent of legislation, including The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965. It capped immigration at 170,000 per year from the Eastern hemisphere and 120,000 from the Western. LBJ signed the bill in front of the Statue of Liberty. No one realized in 1965 just how transformative the law was. A quarter century later, the top ten countries sending immigrants were all from the third world. Since immediate family members did not count toward the annual caps, actual immigration was materially larger than anticipated. Today, there are as many foreign born American as there were a century ago.