Everything about Immigration Act Of 1917 totally explained
On
February 4,
1917, the
United States Congress passed the
Immigration Act of 1917 (also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act) with overwhelming majority, overriding President
Woodrow Wilson's
December 14,
1916 veto. This act added to the number of undesirables banned from entering the country, including but not limited to, “idiots,” “feeble-minded persons,” "criminals" “
epileptics,” “insane persons,”
alcoholics, “professional beggars,” all persons “mentally or physically defective,”
polygamists, and
anarchists. Furthermore, it barred all immigrants over the age of sixteen who were illiterate. The most controversial part of the law was the section that designated an “Asiatic Barred Zone,” a region that included much of eastern
Asia and the
Pacific Islands from which people couldn't immigrate. Previously, only the
Chinese had been excluded from admission to the country.
Previous laws
Anxiety in the United States about immigration has often been directed toward immigrants from China and Japan. The
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 barred Chinese manual workers from entering the U.S. This act was renewed in 1902; in 1904, all Chinese immigrants were barred from coming to the U.S. The
Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907 was made with Japan to regulate Japanese immigration to the U.S. The Immigration Act of 1917 is one of many immigration acts during this time period which arose from nativist and xenophobic sentiment.
Background and people
The plan of using a literacy test to impede immigration wasn't a new idea. This first literacy test was designed to impede the flow of a new wave of immigration, coming from eastern and southern Europe. This concern is supported by a table in an article by Helen F. Eckerson which shows that since the late 1800s, the percentage of immigration coming from the southern and eastern parts of Europe had increased Author John Higham reveals that Senator
Henry Cabot Lodge was an advocate of the literacy test, along with
Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor. Senator Lodge felt “that the test would prevent immigration of many Italians, Russians, Poles, Hungarians, Greeks, and Asians.” Author David J. Goldberg explains that the 1917 literacy test was pushed by Congressmen who feared “that the postwar period would bring a new deluge of immigrants.” President Wilson wasn't pleased because “Congress has passed the literacy test over Wilson’s veto.” The 1917 Immigration Act did exempt Mexican immigrants until 1921 because Mexican labor was important in the Southwest. “The McCarran-Walter Act revised all previous laws and regulations regarding immigration, naturalization, and nationality, and brought them together into one comprehensive statute.”
Footnotes
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