Immigration+Acts+of+1917+and+1924

__**Background on Acts**__ The People being barred and mentioned in these Acts were not treated as human beings by the Congress of the United States. They were treated as pests and vagrants that were polluting our 'pristine' society.

"An Immigrant" is an Individual that has left their home country to come into a different country and start a new life.
 * An Act that sets a series of Laws and Rules that immigrants and immigration officials have to abide by in instances of Immigration.
 * There have been many Immigration Acts over time that respond to the changing amount of Immigrants the U.S. receives each year.
 * Some of these Acts are positive and some are negative. The 1917 and 1924 Acts target a certain group of people and were made so that those people would not enter the U.S.

__**Immigration Act 1917 and 1924 Documents**__ Primary Source Documents



__**1917 (Asiatic Barred Zone Act)**__
 * This Act was passed on February 4, 1917
 * President Woodrow Wilson had given this Act a veto but with the majority vote from Congress this act was put into power
 * There had been many Immigrants banned from the country before this act, this was just adding on. There were two categories of peoples that were banned in this act:
 * People considered, "feeble-minded", "beggars", "polygamists", "criminals", "epileptics" "socially defective people" and immigrants over the age of 16 that were illiterate.
 * People from "Asiatic Barred Zone" eastern Asia and Pacific Islands.
 * Indians from the British Colony
 * China, Korea, and Japan had already been banned from entering the country as an immigrant in previous acts.
 * __**Why was this passed**__
 * At this time many people stereotyped Immigrants as being dirty, uneducated, beggars. (See Charlie Chaplin)
 * The Congress did not want these "vagrants" coming into the country so this law was an attempt at keeping these people out.
 * These Asians countries and India were known to have uneducated, village people in their society.
 * Congress wanted to keep America a pristine, proper, intellectual nation. They did not want an pollution of dirty Immigrants.
 * **__How this Act was Fixed__**
 * The McCarran-Walter Act (1952)
 * offered naturalization to Japanese, Koreans, Chinese and other people from the continent of Asia.
 * This Act revised all rules and regulations set in the 1917 act.


 * __**Pros and Cons of 1917 Act**__
 * A believed pro was that the rate of uneducated peoples coming into the U.S. was significantly lower.
 * A Con is that these people were coming for the American dream and were turned away just because they did not have the same opportunities as a congressman. It looked horrible for our Country and this Act was a big mistake.

__**1924 (Johnson-Reed Act**__ Proposed by Congressman Albert Johnson and Senator David Reed
 * Aimed to restrict Southern and Eastern Europeans who immigrated in large numbers
 * Congress had a stereotypical view of Eastern/Southern Europeans packed on a boat like cock roaches. They believed that all of these men and women that were coming over in masses would steal land, jobs, food, money and destroy the country with their 'unintelligence'.
 * Also prohibited the immigration of East Asians and Asian Indians.
 * __**National Origins Quota of 1924**__
 * First permanent limitation on immigrants and immigration in the U.S.
 * The National Origins Quota system governed immigration regulations until the McCarron-Walter act.
 * Quota limited number of immigrants who could come into the U.S. from a different country to, 2% of the people from that country that were already living in the U.S.
 * There were 200,000 Italians immigrating but because of the 1924 quota only 4,000 per year were allowed.
 * Immigration for Germany, Britain and Ireland were the highest and most welcomed.
 * These quotas stayed in place until the 'Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965'
 * **__Consular Control System__**
 * Any alien may NOT be permitted entrance into the U.S. without an unexpired visa given to them by an 'American consular officer' in their home country.
 * **__Pros and Cons of 1924 Act__**
 * Pro, brought a lot of 'educated', 'wealthy', 'cultured' individuals into the American society.
 * Con, made the Immigrants very angry and more and more people tried to pass by the law and come into the country. This made immigrating conditions very dangerous and hard, some did not survive the trip from the 'old' country to the 'new' country

It's hard to think that Asians, Pacific Islanders, Easter/Southern Europeans, people that have such a huge impact on the U.S's rich culture, at one point in time were not welcome in this country that many of them call home today.

__**Visuals and Video**__ media type="custom" key="7312689"

Chaplin depicts a humorous and enlightening tale of an Immigrant coming over from eastern Europe to America trying to find a better life. Although shown in a satyrical light, the boat ride, low income job and living was note a joke at this time. Immigrants were willing to leave their homeland to come to a country of unknown where anything could possibly happen to them, and the government decides to make it harder on them. Ain't that just the luck. This film is relative to the 1917 and 1924 acts of how Immigrants were stereotyped and who they really were.



Here is a photograph of President Coolidge signing the 1924 act into power. Notice how there are no Asian or Eastern European looking individuals in this picture. It is cruel to see how these horrible acts were passed and the immigrants didn't have a say.



The U.S. wanted "educated" and "intellectual" immigrants, such as the Irish and English. South/Eastern people were considered dirty, dangerous and not an asset to America. This graph is relative to the 1924 act.