Speech #890120576

The act of March 3. 1903. included in the inadmissible classes epileptics. persons who had been insane within 5 years prior to application. professional beggars. anarchists. or persons who believe in. or advocate. the overthrow by force or violence of the Government of the United States. Sixth. The act of February 20. 1907. increased the head tax to $4 and added to the excludable classes imbeciles. feebleminded persons. persons with physical or mental defects which may affect their ability to earn a living. persons afflicted with tuberculosis. children unaccompanied by their parents. persons who admitted the commission of a crime involving moral turpitude. and women coming to the United States for immoral purposes. Professional actors. artists. singers. ministers. professors. and domestic servants were exempted from the provisions of the contract labor law. Authority to deport an alien who had become a public charge from causes which existed before the aliens entry was extended to cover a 3year period after entry. Seventh. The Immigration Act of 1907 also authorized the President to refuse admission to certain persons on the ground that their immigration was detrimental to labor conditions. On the basis of the 1907 act. the President excluded from the continental United States "Japanese and Korean laborers. skilled or unskilled. who had received passports to go to Mexico. Canada. or Hawaii and come therefrom." In 1907 and 1908. a gentlemans agreement was reached between the United States and Japan. whereby the Japanese Government would exercise control over the immigration of laborers to the United States. Eighth. The act of May 6. 1882 was the first of the socalled Chinese Exclusion Acts. This provided for suspension of immigration of Chinese laborers for a period of 10 years. The 1904 act remained in effect until December 17. 1943. when all Chinese exclusion laws were repealed and Chinese persons were made eligible for immigration and naturalization. Ninth. The Immigration Act of February 5. 1917. passed as a result of the growing demand for more effective restrictions on immigration. codified all previously enacted exclusion provisions and added to the inadmissible classes illiterate aliens. persons of constitutional psychopathic inferiority. men as well as women entering for immoral purposes. chronic alcoholics. stowaways. vagrants. and persons who had a previous attack of insanity. The most controversial provision of the 1917 act was the socalled literacy requirement excluding aliens over 16 years of age who were unable to read. A bill providing for a literacy test for immigrants was first passed by Congress in 1897 but was vetoed by President Cleveland. and similar bills were subsequently vetoed by Presidents Taft and Wilson. The 1917 act which was passed over President Wilsons veto plared the literacy requirement on the statute book. In addition. it laid down further restrictions on the immigration of Asian persons by creating the socalled barred zone. natives of which were declared inadmissible to the United States. The barred zone roughly included parts of China. all of India. Burma. Siam. the Malay States. the Asian part of Russia. part of Arabia. part of Afghanistan. most of the Polynesian Islands and the East Indian Islands. The 1917 act broadened considerably the classes of aliens deportable from the United States and introduced the requirement of deportation without statute of limitation in more serious cases. Tenth. On October 16. 1918. Congress passed a law excluding alien anarchists and others believing in or advocating the overthrow of the government. On May 10. 1920. an act was passed calling for the deportation of alien enemies and aliens convicted of violating or conspiracy to violate various war acts. The act of May 22. 1918. the socalled Entry and Departure Controls Act. authorized the President to control the departure from. and entry into. the United States in times of war or national emergency. of any person whose presence was deemed contrary to public safety. The act of March 2. 1921. provided that those provisions of the Entry and Departure Controls Act relating to passport and visa requirements of aliens seeking to come to the United States should continue in force until otherwise provided by law. Eleventh. The quota law of 1921: The first quota law was enacted May 19. 1921. This limited the number of aliens entering the United States to 3 percent of foreignborn persons of that nationality who lived in the United States in 1910. Under this law approximately 350.000 aliens were permitted to enter each year as quota immigrants. mostly from Northern and Western Europe. Twelfth. Then came the national Immigration Act of 1924. which was the first permanent Immigration Quota Act. The 1924 act. as amended. contained two quota provisions. The first one. in effect until June 30. 1929. set the annual quota of any quota nationality at 2 percent of the number of foreignborn persons of such nationality resident in continental United States in 1890. The total quota under this provision was 164.667. The second provision regulating quotas from July 1. 1929. to December 31. 1952. introduced the muchdebated national origins quota system. Under it the annual quota for any country or nationality had the sme relation to 150.000 as the number of inhabitants in continental United States in 1920 having that national origin had to the total number of inhabitants in continental United States in 1920. Since no quota was to be smaller than 100. the total quotas prior to January 1. 1953. amounted annually to 154.277.