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http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/03/08/1192026/-US-Since-1865-Restricting-Immigration-1918-1924-Racism-Xenophobia-and-Misogyny

1917 Immigration Acts

When?

Well, 1917, however this unrealistic fear of other cultures became widespread in American culture during the last years of WWI, when America had to become involved.

Literacy Tests were only some of the tactics used to bar the immigrants from entering the US legally.

Sources

Immigration Act of 1917

The Law: Federal law imposing major new restrictions on categories of people allowed to immigrate

Date: Went into effect on May 1, 1917

Significance: The Immigration Act of 1917 was the first federal law to impose a general restriction on immigration in the form of a literacy test. It also broadened restrictions on the immigration of Asians and persons deemed “undesirable” and provided tough enforcement provisions.

Through the first century of American independence, immigration into the United States was largely unrestricted. This open-door policy began to change during the 1870’s and 1880’s, with the introduction of federal legislation aimed at barring two classes of immigrants: Asian laborers to California and immigrants deemed physically and mentally “undesirable.” In 1882, for example, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act to bar the immigration of Chinese workers and a general immigration act to bar the immigration of persons judged likely to become “public charges.”

The general Immigration Act of 1882 also imposed a “head tax” of fifty cents on each immigrant. The U.S. Congress, which was constitutionally empowered to exercise exclusive jurisdiction over immigration, continued to increase restrictions through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The head tax was increased to four dollars by the Immigration Act of 1907. The Chinese Exclusion Act was amended and tightened in legislation enacted in 1884, 1888, 1892, and 1902. In the Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907, Japan agreed to bar its citizens from emigrating to the United States. The Immigration Act of 1891 added more categories of people to the list of “undesirable aliens,” including persons with contagious diseases and polygamists. The Immigration Acts of 1903, 1907, and 1910 added rules to exclude persons with mental and physical defects, persons with tuberculosis, and anarchists. However, congressional provisions to add a literacy requirement to the immigration laws were vetoed by Presidents Grover Cleveland in 1896, William Howard Taft in 1913, and Woodrow Wilson in 1915.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/03/08/1192026/-US-Since-1865-Restricting-Immigration-1918-1924-Racism-Xenophobia-and-Misogyny

http://immigrationinamerica.org/588-immigration-act-of-1917.html

http://library.uwb.edu/guides/usimmigration/1917_immigration_act.html

Summary

http://immigrationinamerica.org/588-immigration-act-of-1917.html

- Afraid of foreign affairs

- Woodrow Wilson vetoed it

-Mainly targeted people of the asiatic zone

-Happened in 1917, ideology was developed beforehand

Who?

1917 Immigration Acts

- The bill was initially passed by Congress in 1917, and was vetoed by President Woodrow Wilson, but it was passed over his veto with a two-thirds vote in congress

- It mainly effected people from the Asiatic Zone, however it extended to others, cultures not only immigrating, but people that were already living in the US

Why?

Primarily, fear.

American society couldn't handle the idea of over-population by stereotypical eastern culture, and with the red scare on the horizon and WWI behind them, politicians were becoming weary of getting involved in foreign affairs.

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