Immigration Laws & Cartoons
Could your ancestors have come here after 1924?
Provisions of certain immigration laws.
Immigration Act of 1917
-Barred the following types of people: "idiots, imbeciles, and feeble-minded persons;" persons of "constitutional psychopathic inferiority;" "mentally or physically defective" persons; the insane; alcoholics; persons with epilepsy, tuberculosis, or contagious diseases; paupers and vagrants; criminals; prostitutes; anarchists; polygamists; political radicals; and contract laborers.
-Created "Asiatic-Barred zone" which included people from India, Afghanistan, Persia (now Iran), Arabia, parts of the Ottoman Empire and Russia, Southeast Asia, and the Asian-Pacific islands.
-Banned any immigrant who was unable to read in any language.
Emergency Quota Act of 1921
-Restricted immigration to 3% of foreign-born persons of each nationality that resided in the United States in 1910.
Immigration Act of 1924
-For four years, until June 30, 1927, the 1924 Act set the annual quota of any nationality at 2% of the number of foreign-born persons of such nationality resident in the United States in 1890. Banned any immigrant who could not become a U.S. citizen, which meant anyone from China or Japan.
Images courtesy of the Library of Congress