The Impact of the Emergency Immigration Act and National Origins Act on US Immigration Policy

Congress reacted to the anti-foreigner pressure of the post-war period by passing the Emergency Immigration Act (1921) & National Origins Act of (1924). These laws established a quota system that discriminated and reduced the number of Jewish and Catholic “New Immigrants” allowed in the United States. These laws essentially closed the door to immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe.

Immigration in the 1920s

The Emergency Immigration Act of 1921 and the National Origins Act of 1924 were both enacted in response to growing anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States. The legislation was fueled by fears about competition for jobs, concerns about radicalism, and a general sense of anxiety about the changing face of American society.

The Emergency Immigration Act of 1921 was the first federal law to set specific limits on immigration. It established a quota system that restricted the number of immigrants who could enter the United States each year. The quota was based on the number of immigrants from a given country who were already living in the United States, with the largest quotas reserved for Northern and Western European countries.

The National Origins Act of 1924 built on the quota system established by the 1921 law. This legislation made the quotas much more restrictive, and placed a cap on the number of immigrants who could enter the United States from each country at 2% of the number of people from that country already living in the US. This effectively excluded most immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, since relatively few people from these regions had already emigrated to the US.

These laws had the effect of severely restricting Jewish and Catholic immigrants from entering the United States. They also had a broader impact, as they essentially closed the door to immigration from many regions of the world. Many historians argue that the passage of these laws marked the end of a period of relatively open immigration in the United States that began in the late 19th century.

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