Exclusion and the Golden Door: U.S. Immigration Policy

1. Exclusion and the Golden Door: U.S. Immigration Policy Jonathan T. Lyons Political Science Capstone Fall 2007

2. Overview • Policy History from 1790-Present • How stereotypes and xenophobia influenced policy development • Current Status of Immigration

3. First Immigration Legislation • Act of March 26th, 1790 • Set residency requirement for citizenship at 2 years • Act of January 29th, 1795 • Requirement amended to 5 years • Federalists vs. Jeffersonians

4. Alien and Sedition Acts (1798) • Naturalization Act • Alien and Alien Enemy Acts • Sedition Act-Infringement on Free Speech John Adams

5. Open-Door Era (1790-1882) • Federalist acts expired with Thomas Jefferson Presidency • After the founding of the U.S. immigration is encouraged • 1819- “An act regulating passenger ships and vessels” • Began recording the number of immigrants entering the United States Thomas Jefferson

6. Open-Door Era • 1821-1830: 143,439immigrants arrive • President John Tyler encourages immigration in his message to the 22nd Congress in 1841 • “We hold out the to the people of other countries an invitation to come and settle among us”

7. Opposition to Early Immigration • The Irish Potato Famine (1845-1851) and crop failures in Germany resulted in heavy Irish/German immigration • Irish immigrants are almost exclusively Catholic, German immigrants have large Catholic segment • Nativist sentiments emerged in northern cities such as Boston and New York

9. The Gold Rush: Immigration Explosion • 1848-James W. Marshall discovers gold in the American River outside Sacramento • Gold discovery inspires an explosion in immigration, especially from China • 1841-1850: 1,713,251 immigrants arrive • 1850-United States census records the “nativity” of citizens

10. Know-Nothing Movement (American Party) • Began as the Order of the Star Spangled Banner • Members had to be native-born white Protestants • Their oath: “to resist the insidious policy of the Church of Rome…by placing in all offices native-born Protestant citizens” Know-Nothing Party Flag

11. Open-Door Era • 1851-1870: 4,913,039 immigrants arrive • 1862-Homestead Act • 1863-Central Pacific and Union Pacific hire Chinese and Irish laborers respectively to construct first transcontinental railroad • Completed at Promontory Summit, Utah on May 10th, 1869

12. Chinese Exclusion Act • Signed May 6th, 1882 • Reaction to rapid expansion of Chinese immigration • First act directed at a nationality • Beginning of “Door-Ajar” Era

13. Door-Ajar Era • January 1st, 1892-Ellis Island opens • May 1892-Geary Act • Extends exclusion of Chinese 10 additional years • Required all Chinese to obtain a certificate of residence within one year • Excluded Chinese from being witnesses

15. Door-Ajar Era • 1904-Chinese Exclusion Act extended indefinitely • Immigration Act of February 20th, 1907 • Created the Dillingham Commission • Distinguished between “old” and “new” immigrants • Conclusions led to the establishment of Quota Acts • Immigration Act of 1917-Asiatic Barred Zone

16. Asiatic Barred Zone

17. Quota System • Began with Emergency Quota Act of 1921 • Immigrants could only constitute 3% of their country’s existing population in the U.S. according to 1910 census data • 357,000 per year • President Calvin Coolidge: “America is for Americans” Calvin Coolidge

18. Quota System • Albert Johnson-chairman of House of Representatives C.I.N. • Johnson-Reed Immigration Act of 1924 • Changed quota to 2% of resident nationalities • Reduced annual total immigration to 150,000 • Shifted back to 1890 census as benchmark

19. National Origins System • Created in the Johnson-Reed Act but delayed until 1929 • Eugenics-driven policy • “Encouraged” immigration of “old” Northwestern Europeans and discouraged “new” immigration from Southeastern Europe

21. Immigration During Quota System • National Origins made no specifications against immigrants from Western Hemisphere • Coolidge saw limits on this type of immigration as counterproductive • Mexicans welcomed during labor shortage of World War I, then deported during Great Depression

22. Bracero Program • 1942-Agreement between Mexico and U.S. • Contracted over 4.5 million Mexican nationals for work on U.S. farms • “Mojados” undocumented Mexican laborers

23. Bracero Program • Postwar economy was strong, due in part to Bracero labor • Mexican laborers filled void left by exclusion of Asian immigrants and National Origin Systems • 1954- “Operation Wetback” enacted to stem the tide of undocumented laborers

24. Civil Rights Legislation • December 31, 1964-Bracero Program ends • Immigration Act of 1965 • Ended the quota system • First regulation of Western Hemisphere immigration • Set limit of 20,000 visas per year on nations of Eastern Hemisphere Lyndon B. Johnson

25. Shift in Ethnicity • Act of 1965 stimulated Asian immigration • Western Europe was economically prosperous, Eastern Europe under Soviet influence • Increase in refugees from Latin American and Asian countries during wartime

26. Illegal Immigration • 1980-number of legal immigrants entering annually reaches 500,000 • 1986-Immigration Reform and Control Act • Placed sanctions on employers who hired illegal immigrants • Offered amnesty, 2 million undocumented immigrants gained eventual citizenship

27. Proposition 187 • Passed by California in 1994 • Denied public benefits to illegal aliens • Immediately blocked and then overturned by Supreme Court in 1998 Gray Davis

28. Post 9/11 Immigration Policy • March 1, 2003-INS transitions into U.S.C.I.S. • Department of Homeland Security • Creation of Immigration Customs and Enforcement

30. Immigration and Customs Enforcement • J.W. Barnes, Senior Special Agent • Current illegal population grossly underestimated • Border towns controlled, deserts are a revolving door • Only illegal immigrants deported easily are those with a criminal record

31. Proposed Legislation • Amnesty • Real ID • Guest-Worker Program • Project 28 • June 28th, 2007-Senate votes to block massive reform of U.S. immigration policy

32. 2008 Presidential Candidates

33. Candidates Statements and Recent Voting • Clinton and Obama-both gave speeches using the phrase “out of the shadows” • In favor of C.I.R.A. of 2006 • Huckabee-voting record favors helping illegal aliens within U.S. • Romney-empowered MA police to arrest and deport illegal aliens

34. Conclusions • Stereotypes and anti-foreign sentiments influenced policy development • Current policy in need of overhaul • How will U.S. immigration policy further develop?

35. Further Reading • Beasley, Vanessa B., ed. 2006. Who Belongs in America? Presidents, Rhetoric, and Immigration. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press • Daniels, Roger. 2004. Guarding the Golden Door: American Immigration Policy and Immigrants Since 1882. New York, NY: Hill and Wang Publishing • Hutchinson, E.P. 1981. Legislative History of American Immigration Policy1798-1965. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press • King, Desmond. 2000. Making Americans: Immigration, Race, and the Origins of the Diverse Democracy. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press