Origins of U.S. Immigration

The United States is a country of immigrants. Very few people in the United States can trace their ancestry to a Native American source. Over the last 200 years, the regulations concerning who can come to the United States, and who can stay, have become more and more complex. In general, the regulation of immigration has been solely a function of the federal government, and reflects the times in which the regulations were passed.

During the first 100 years (from 1776 to 1875), there was very little regulation of immigration in the United States. From 1776 until 1790, there was an “open door” policy in which virtually anyone could come to the United States and become a citizen. Congress even passed legislation encouraging immigration. The first immigration restrictions appeared in 1875, when Congress passed statutes excluding convicts and prostitutes from immigration to the U.S. A few years later, the first general federal immigration law was passed. It included a tax of 50 cents per immigrant, and excluded “idiots, lunatics, convicts, and persons likely to become public charges.”

American Immigration laws reflect the fears and changes in American society of the time. The Gold Rush of the 1850’s happened at a time of political turmoil and poverty in China, as the old empire collapsed in that country. Chinese flocked to American in search of opportunities. In California, the Chinese newcomers soon became an exploited work force; but their wages in California were still higher than what they could earn in China. Many Chinese became miners and worked on the railroads; and some developed the laundry business, which was very much in demand in the overpopulated San Francisco of the Gold Rush era.

Resentment against the Chinese grew for over thirty years. The Chinese faced discrimination from many groups, including American miners, who felt that the hard-working and low-paid Chinese were reducing their wages and taking their jobs. White miners and prospectors imposed taxes and laws to inhibit the Chinese from success in their business ventures. By 1882, the Chinese were hated enough to be banned from immigrating to the United States, and the Chinese Exclusion Act, initially to last only10 years, was extended indefinitely. It was not repealed until 1943. The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first immigration law passed in the U.S. that targeted a specific ethnic group.

Over the years, the list of excludable aliens grew. In 1885, laws were passed to exclude cheap foreign labor. In 1891, aliens with contagious diseases, criminals, polygamists, and paupers were excluded. In 1903, the fear of anarchists (the terrorists of the early 1900’s) led to their exclusion, along with “epileptics, insane persons, and professional beggars.”

Anti-Chinese sentiment in the U.S. was still strong in 1917 when the Asiatic Barred Zone Act was passed. This law was passed over President Wilson’s veto and barred all Asians except the Japanese from entering the United States. As times and fortunes changed, the Chinese became allies of the U.S. during World War II, and the Japanese who had immigrated to the United States and their U.S. citizen families were subjected to internment in relocation camps throughout the United States.

The large-scale immigration of persons from Southern and Eastern Europe led to the establishment of a national origin quota system. The fear was that Southern and Eastern Europeans would inundate the United States and take over the country. Only 3% of the number of foreign-born persons from certain countries could immigrate under the new laws. This quota did not include persons from the Western Hemisphere, and continued to completely bar the Chinese from immigrating to the U.S. The quota system still remains, but in 1965 it was modified to no longer base quotas on racial or national origins. Quotas were changed to be by hemisphere. Discrimination due to race and national origin is unconstitutional, and denied of the right to equal protection under the law.

About the author: Kathleen Lord-Black is a U.S. immigration lawyer.  Her offices are located in Vancouver, British Columbia. She has served as Immigration Consultant for the San Francisco Public Defenders Office, 2005 Chair of the Immigration Section of the Barristers Club of the Bar Association of San Francisco, and former Congressional liaison for U.S. Representative Farr. Ms. Lord-Black is an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the American Civil Liberties Union. Her articles regularly appear in the Bay Area Arabic-language newspaper, Alra’i Alarabi. Ms. Lord-Black can be reached via email at kathleen@kathleenlord.com; and by telephone at (360) 329-2436 (U.S.) and (604) 352-2006 (Canada) . www.immigration-etats-unis.com