When the U.S. Closed Its Doors to Immigrants
Until the last quarter of the 19th century, there was no federal legislation regulating immigration in the U.S. In fact, individual states controlled entry into the country until an 1875 Supreme Court case (Chy Lung v. Freeman) declared immigration regulation a federal responsibility. Growing feelings of nativism prompted the federal government to pass new restrictions based on income level, education, and moral, biological, and physical qualities:
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One early exception to this pattern of law based on characteristics and behaviors was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which barred immigration based solely on nationality.
In 1924, the federal government passed the most restrictive immigration law in U.S. history up to that point: the Johnson-Reed Act. This legislation not only significantly decreased overall immigration to the U.S. but used a new set of criteria to determine who could enter the U.S. and who could not.
In this lesson, you will watch videos and analyze a variety of primary sources to help you understand what led the federal government to effectively close the doors to immigration by 1924. You will evaluate arguments for and against immigration and, in the end, use that information to outline three arguments against the Johnson-Reed Act.
