Immigration Act of 1924

"Asian Exclusion Act" redirects here. Not to be confused with Chinese Exclusion Act.
Immigration Act of 1924
Great Seal of the United States
Long titleAn Act to limit the number of immigrants allowed entry into the United States, and for other purposes.
NicknamesJohnson-Reed Act
Enacted bythe 68th United States Congress
EffectiveMay 26, 1924
Citations
Public lawPub. L. 68–139
Statutes at Large43 Stat. 153
Legislative history
  • Introduced in the House of Representatives as H.R. 7995
  • Passed the House on April 12, 1924 (323–71)
  • Agreed to by the House on May 15, 1924 (308–62) and by the Senate on May 15, 1924 (69–9)
  • Signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge on May 24, 1924

The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson–Reed Act, including the Asian Exclusion Act and National Origins Act (Pub. L. 68–139, 43 Stat. 153, enacted May 26, 1924), was a United States federal law that prevented immigration from Asia and set quotas on the number of immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe.[1][2] It also authorized the creation of the country's first formal border control service, the U.S. Border Patrol, and established a "consular control system" that allowed entry only to those who first obtained a visa from a U.S. consulate abroad.

Enacted amid increasing public and political anxiety about the country's rapid social and demographic changes, the 1924 act supplanted earlier legislation by vastly reducing immigration from countries outside the Western Hemisphere: Immigrants from Asia were banned,[3] and the total annual immigration quota for the rest of the world was capped at 165,000—an 80% reduction of the yearly average before 1914. The act temporarily reduced the annual quota of any nationality from 3% of their 1910 population, per the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, to 2% as recorded in the 1890 census;[3] a new quota was implemented in 1927, based on each nationality's share of the total U.S. population in the 1920 census, which would govern U.S. immigration policy until 1965.[4][5][6]

According to the Department of State, the purpose of the act was "to preserve the ideal of U.S. homogeneity."[3] The 1924 act would define U.S. immigration policy for nearly three decades, until being substantially revised by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 and ultimately replaced by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.

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  3. ^ a b c "The Immigration Act of 1924 (The Johnson-Reed Act)". U.S Department of State Office of the Historian. Retrieved February 13, 2012.
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