The
Naturalization Act of 1790 declared that only people of European or white descent were eligible for naturalization, but eligibility was extended to people of African descent in the
Naturalization Act of 1870.
Chinese and Japanese laborers were barred from
immigrating to the U.S. in the 1882
Chinese Exclusion Act and the
Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907, respectively. Another proposal for immigration restriction was introduced again in 1909 by U.S. Senator
Henry Cabot Lodge. The
Immigration Act of 1917 restricted immigration further in a variety of ways. It increased restrictions on Asian immigration, raised the general immigrant head tax, excluded those deemed to be diseased or mentally unwell, and in light of intense lobbying by the
Immigration Restriction League, introduced the literacy test for all new immigrants to prove their ability to read English. In the wake of the
post–World War I recession, many Americans believed that bringing in more immigrants would worsen the
unemployment rate. The
First Red Scare of 1919–1921 had fueled fears of foreign radicals migrating to undermine American values and provoke an uprising like the 1917
October Revolution in
Russia. The number of immigrants entering the United States decreased for about a year from July 1919 to June 1920 but doubled in the year after that. U.S. Representative
Albert Johnson, a
eugenics advocate, and Senator
David Reed were the two main architects of the act. They conceived the act as a bulwark against "a stream of alien blood"; it likewise found support among xenophobic and nativist groups such as the
Ku Klux Klan. However, some proponents, such as the
American Federation of Labor (AFL), welcomed the act for reducing cheap immigrant labor that would compete with local workers. Both public and Congressional opposition was minimal. In the wake of intense
lobbying, it passed with strong congressional support. There were nine dissenting votes in the
Senate and a handful of opponents in the
House of Representatives, the most vigorous of whom was freshman
Brooklyn Representative
Emanuel Celler, a
Jewish American. Decades later, he pointed out the act's "startling discrimination against central, eastern and southern Europe." Proponents of the act sought to establish a distinct American identity by preserving its ethnic homogeneity. Reed told the Senate that earlier legislation "disregards entirely those of us who are interested in keeping American stock up to the highest standard—that is, the people who were born here." He believed that immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, most of whom were Catholics or Jews, arrived sick and starving, were less capable of contributing to the
American economy, and were unable to adapt to
American culture.
Samuel Gompers, himself a Jewish immigrant from Britain and the founder of the
American Federation of Labor (AFL), supported the act because he opposed the cheap labor that immigration represented even though the act would sharply reduce Jewish immigration. Both the AFL and the
Ku Klux Klan supported the act. Historian
John Higham concludes: "Klan backing made no material difference. Congress was expressing the will of the nation.". signs the Immigration Act on the
White House South Lawn along with appropriation bills for the
Veterans Bureau.
John J. Pershing is on the left. Lobbyists from the
West Coast, where a majority of Japanese, Korean, and other East Asian immigrants had settled, were especially concerned with excluding Asian immigrants. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act had already slowed Chinese immigration, but as Japanese andto a lesser degreeKorean and Filipino laborers began arriving and putting down roots in
Western United States, an exclusionary movement formed in reaction to the "
Yellow Peril."
Valentine S. McClatchy, the founder of
The McClatchy Company and a leader of the
anti-Japanese movement, argued, "They come here specifically and professedly for the purpose of colonizing and establishing here permanently the proud
Yamato race." He cites their supposed inability to assimilate to American culture and the economic threat that they posed to white businessmen and farmers. The act faced strong opposition from the Japanese government with which the U.S. government had maintained a cordial economic and political relationship. Members of the Senate interpreted Hanihara's phrase "grave consequences" as a threat, which was used by hardliners of the bill to fuel both houses of Congress to vote for it. Because 1924 was an
election year, and he was unable to form a compromise, President
Calvin Coolidge declined to use his
veto power to block the act, although both houses passed it by a veto-overriding two-thirds majority. The act was signed into law on May 24, 1924. ==Provisions==