Immigration History
Fourth Wave 1875-1920
Irish & Chinese
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testing at Ellis Is.
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Ellis Is.
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1862 - Congress began the Federal System when it passed the first immigration restriction law, prohibited American vessels to transport Chinese immigrants to the U.S.
1864 - Bureau of Immigration was created to oversee importation of Chinese contract laborers.
1875 - the Supreme Court declared the regulation of immigration to be a federal responsibility.
1880 - the Fourth Wave of immigration began that brought 21 million by 1920 from eastern and southern Europe, called the "New Immigration" because most were not Protestant, not English-speaking, and were poor.
1882 "The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in order to prevent an excess of cheap labor in the U.S. and provided the deportation of those who were adjudged illegal residents. The act froze the population of the Chinese community leaving its sex ratio highly imbalanced. For more than half a century, the Chinese lived in an essentially bachelor society where old men always outnumbered the young. Three years before, the previous president had vetoed a similar law completely restricting all immigration of Chinese immigrants to the U.S. A year after the end of his term, the new president passed the Chinese Exclusion Act." (1) The Act was repealed in 1943.
1882 - Congress ordered the states to inspect and to tax each immigrant, 50 cents per head (raised to $2 in 1903 and $4 in 1907). However, failure of the states to act caused Congress to assume full authority over immigration.
1891 - Congress created the Office of the Superintendent of Immigration in the Treasury Department tp oversee the new U.S. Immigrant Inspectors stationed at the principal ports of entry, especially Ellis Island that employed 119 of the entire corps of 180 inspectors.
1892 "The additional immigration laws of 1875, 1882 and 1892 passed by Congress provides examinations of immigrants and the exclusion of convicts, polygamists, prostitutes, persons suffering from loathsome or contagious diseases, and persons liable to become public charges."
1892 - Jan. 2 Ellis Island opened to screen immigrants arriving in the port of New York until 1954.
1897 - The Immigration Service was established in the Department of Justice.
1907 "The U.S. and Japan sign the Gentleman's Agreement ensuring that the Japanese government will not issue passports to Japanese laborers intending to enter the U.S. Under the Gentleman's Agreement, the U.S. refrained from enacting any laws excluding Japanese immigrants until 1924" (2)
1917 "The Immigration Act of 1917 not only expanded the classes of foreigners excluded from the U.S., but created the Asiatic Barred Zone, a geographical region covering most of eastern Asia and the Pacific islands from which no immigrants were to be admitted into the U.S. The law also imposed a literacy test and aliens who were unable to meet the minimum mental moral, physical, and economic standards were excluded, as were anarchists and other subversives, from the U.S." (2)
1918 The Anarchist Act of 1918 expanded the provisions for the exclusion of subversive aliens.
1924 Congress passed the Quota system
Sources:
- Center for Immigration Studies
- Immigration Through Time
