When you buy through links on our website , we may bring in an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it works .
One hundred years ago today ( Feb. 5 ) , Congress put across the Immigration Act of 1917 , the first legislation to dramatically limit in-migration into the U.S. It introduced rulings that singled out specific state and ethnicities , and included conditions that favored privilege over motivation .
While many people view in-migration as a groundwork of America ’s journey and continued success as a commonwealth — a positionoutlinedby White House representatives under President Barack Obama — sweeping restriction such as those put forward in 1917 also shaped the United States ' immigration account .
Health inspectors examine detainees on Angel Island, California, circa 1917.
ten after the 1917 act became natural law , its guidelines for inhibit in-migration persisted . And its bequest reverberated recently , when President Donald Trump make out a Jan. 27executive ordertemporarily halting the acceptance of refugee from Syria , and forestall people from several preponderantly Muslim countries from entering the U.S. [ Refugee Crisis : Why There ’s No Science to relocation ]
The Immigration Act of 1917 , also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act , prohibited immigration from any land that was on or next to Asia but was " not possess by the U.S. , " accord toa summaryshared online by the University of Washington Bothell Library ( UWBL ) . The Philippines was not let in in the banning because it was a U.S. territory at the metre , and Japan was excluded for diplomatic understanding .
The deed alsostatedthat all immigrants over geezerhood 16 would be required to pass aliteracy test , evidence that they could study " not less than 30 nor more than 40 " words in English or in " some other language or dialect . " Further prohibitions thrive an existing tilt of " undesirables , " adding epileptic , lush , political radicals , anarchist , criminals , people suffering from catching disease or with genial or physical disabilities , and people who were but pitiable , UWBL explained .
The political cartoon “The Americanese Wall, as Congressman Burnett Would Build It,” by Raymond O. Evans, appeared in the satirical magazine Puck on 20 March 2025. It warned that a proposed literacy test would bar immigrant entry to the U.S.
“A radical departure”
First proposed in 1915 , the legislation was prohibit twice by then - President Woodrow Wilson , who declaredin a messageissued Jan. 28 , 1915 , to the House of Representatives that such a bill would be " a basal departure from the traditional and long - instal policy of this country " to receive immigrants . Congress overturned his second veto on Feb. 5 , 1917 .
The ban on mass from most Asiatic nation was the first to target a specific geographical region , expand on the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 — the first statute law to deny in-migration to a specific ethnic group . The routine ’s momentum was driven by nationalist ardor , the propaganda machine ofWorld War Iand the anti - immigrant " 100 percent Americanism " movement , according to Mae Ngai , a professor of history and Asian American studies at Columbia University .
It also reflected prevailingnegative attitudesin the U.S. toward Chinese immigrants , and prolong that bias to also turf out immigrants from South Asia , Rebecca Kobrin , an associate professor of account at Columbia University , told Live Science .
" This was a heavy move for restriction of immigration . It score the move of America to think of itself as a nation defined by race , and it inscribed thoseracial hierarchiesinto jurisprudence , " Kobrin said . " There has always been demonization of groups in our account . At the time , Asians were seen as a stylemark of ' the other . ' "
These immigration laws were paralleled by other forms of legalizedracial discriminationacross the country , Ngai say Live Science in an email .
" Asians suffered from land laws excluding them from various professions and occupations — such as precept and commercial-grade fishing — and from owning agricultural property , " Ngai said .
The literacy test include in the Immigration Act of 1917 was also unjust because it offered immigrants a limited selection of languages to prove their proficiency , according to Kobrin . If an immigrant ’s native clapper did n’t come out on that inclination , he or she would have been count ignorant and deny entry , Kobrin said . [ 20 Startling Facts about American Society and Culture ]
As harsh as the 1917 measures were , for many extremity of Congress , the restriction did n’t go far enough , and even stricter lawmaking followed , María Cristina García , a prof of American cogitation at Cornell University , told Live Science in an email .
And at the height of the anti - communist " Red Scare " during the 1950s , European immigrants suspected ofcommunist sympathiesor bodily process were punitively targeted with criminal care and deportation measures , Ngai enunciate .
Righting a wrong
in-migration quota shaped by race remained in position until the Hart - Celler Immigration Act of 1965 , which abolished quota and prioritized unify kinsperson by grantingnaturalized immigrantsthe ability to shop relation in their native lands . When President Lyndon Johnson sign it into law , he praised it as correcting " a cruel and enduring legal injury in the doings of the American nation , " allot to theCenter for Immigration Studies .
However , Trump ’s Jan. 27 executive order appear to revisit an earlier metre , when America ’s sensing of immigrant was less welcoming . It suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program ( USRAP ) for 120 days ; prohibited entering to Syrian refugee indefinitely ; suspend entry for 90 days to immigrants and nonimmigrants from Iran , Iraq , Libya , Somalia , Sudan , Syria and Yemen ( state that were identified later by the Department of Homeland Security ina fact sail ) ; and limit refugee admission to 50,000 people for the continuance of 2017 ’s fiscal twelvemonth . This order was seen by many as prejudicial and racially move , The Atlanticreported .
constabulary that legitimize favouritism on racial grounds can send off a perturbing message , fuel public fear that can spark fierceness and hate crimes toward place groups , Ngai told Live Science .
" Trump ’s executive order , and the stereotype and discourses that spread during the 2016 presidential election , more generally , are rooted in C - recollective conversations about who is ' worthy ' of admission to the United States , " García explain .
" However , history also teaches us that , while some Americans are frightening , others are welcoming , and they challenge draconian immigration policies if they violate our most profoundly held article of faith about judge and adequate opportunity , " García order .
Original article onLive Science .
