Immigration Legislation in the United States
Immigration Legislation in relation to Crime and Race
Immigration Legislation is included in the Encyclopedia of Race and Crime (1), beginning with: Categories of racial difference have always been important in the regulation of immigration. Racial distinctions can no longer be found in the legislation itself, but they live on in its administration. This section considers the evolution of immigration policy, including refugee policy, and its political and practical impact. The openness of the United States to both legal and illegal immigration has produced a backlash that has significant implications for the quality of life of citizens and noncitizens who are perceived to be immigrants. During the first century of its existence, the United States paid little heed to who entered the country. The issue was who would be entitled to citizenship through “naturalization.” A 1790 law set a uniform residence requirement and also specified that only “free White persons” could be naturalized, a restriction that stayed in place, remarkably, until 1952 when the McCarren-Walter Act finally swept it away.
Regulation of Immigration
Congress has the exclusive power to regulate immigration. It alone has the power to decide who may be admitted to the United States and under what conditions. The power to control the nation’s borders is an inherent power (see page 91). In an early leading case on the point, the Court ruled that the power of the United States to “exclude aliens from its territory … is not open to controversy,” Chae Chan Ping v. United States, 1889. The States have no power in the field, The Passenger Cases, 1849.
Congress made no serious attempt to regulate immigration for more than a century after independence. As long as land was plentiful and expanding industry demanded more and still more workers, immigration was encouraged.
By 1890, however, the open frontier was a thing of the past, and labor was no longer in short supply. Then, too, the major source of immigration had shifted. Until the 1880s, most immigrants had come from the countries of northern and western Europe. The “new immigration” from the 1880s onward came mostly from southern and eastern Europe. All these factors combined to bring major changes in the traditional policy of encouraging immigration.
Congress placed the first major restrictions on immigration with the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. At the same time, it barred the entry of convicts, “lunatics,” paupers, and others likely to become public charges.
Over the next several years a long list of “undesirables” was added to the law. Thus, contract laborers were excluded in 1885, immoral persons and anarchists in 1903, and illiterates in 1917. By 1920 more than 30 groups were denied admission on the basis of personal traits.
The tide of newcomers continued to mount, however. In the 10 years from 1905 through 1914, an average of more than a million persons, most of them from southern and eastern Europe, came to this country each year.
Congress responded to pressure for tighter regulation by adding quantitative limits (numerical ceilings) to the qualitative restrictions (personal characteristics) already in place. The Immigration Acts of 1921 and 1924 and the National Origins Act of 1929 assigned each country in Europe a quota–a limit on the number of immigrants who could enter the United States from that country each year. Altogether, only 150,000 quota immigrants could be admitted in any one year. The quotas were purposely drawn to favor northern and western Europe. The quota system was not applied to the Western Hemisphere, but immigration from Asia, Africa, and elsewhere was generally prohibited.
In 1952, Congress passed yet another basic law, the Immigration and Nationality Act. That statute modified the quota system to cover every country outside the Western Hemisphere.
Congress finally eliminated the country-based quota system in the Immigration Act of 1965. That law allowed as many as 270,000 immigrants to enter the United States each year, without regard to race, nationality, or country of origin. The 1965 law gave special preference to immediate relatives of American citizens or of aliens legally residing in the United States.
Immigration Policies
The Immigration Act of 1990 governs the admission of aliens to the United States. Like its predecessors, it was adopted only after years of intense debate, and many of its provisions are the subject of continuing controversy.
The 1990 law provided for a substantial increase in the number of immigrants who may enter the United States each year. The annual ceiling is now set at 675,000. It also continues the family-preference policy first put in place in 1965; at least one third of those persons admitted under its terms must be the close relatives of American citizens or resident aliens. Those immigrants who have occupational talents in short supply in the United States (notably, highly skilled researchers, engineers, and scientists) also receive special preference.
Only those aliens who can qualify for citizenship can be admitted as immigrants. The law’s list of “excludable aliens”-those barred because of some personal characteristic–is extensive. Among those excluded are: criminals (including suspected terrorists), persons with communicable diseases, drug abusers and addicts, illiterates, and mentally disturbed persons who might pose a threat to the safety of others.
Resources
Notes and References
- Entry about Immigration Legislation in the Encyclopedia of Race and Crime
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