In recent years, much of the concern about immigration has focused on the growing Hispanic proportion of the US population. However, struggles about immigration have been going on for over a century, with successive attempts to define criteria for acceptable immigrants and to limit total numbers. Here are a few historical facts pulled together by a Commonweal Institute volunteer, Nancy Ellsworth:
Until the late 1800’s almost all immigrants were welcome because we [overwhelmingly, those of European ancestry] perceived a need to fill up the land. But beginning in 1875, restrictions were applied. First, laws were passed barring criminals, people with diseases, or those likely to become paupers. In 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed, and in 1907 we signed a Gentleman’s Agreement with Japan that stopped the immigration of the Japanese. Then in 1917 immigrants were required to be literate in some language.In the 1920’s a comprehensive series of laws was enacted that set limits by a national origins quota based on the census, and this was reaffirmed in the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952, with exceptions for refugees displaced by war. This act also removed the ban on Asian immigration.
Exceptions were made, however, such as the “Bracero” program that allowed temporary Mexican contract workers from 1942 to 1964 because of our need for their labor. Even then, millions of illegal immigrants continued crossing the border because of economic hardship in Mexico. In 1965 the quota system was finally repealed, and an annual maximum was established “with preferential selection” that gave certain classes of immigrants priority.
Given our dilemma of so many undocumented residents, Congress in 1986 passed a law that prohibited the hiring of illegal aliens, but provided amnesty and potential naturalization for many of them. The new rules, however, did not stem the flow of people crossing the Mexican border, from Mexico and points farther south, many of whom were responding to the economic hardships there.
References:
Boyer, P.S., Ed. (2001). The Oxford Companion to United States History. NY: Oxford University
Press.
Faragher, J. M. (1998). The American Heritage Encyclopedia of American History. NY: Holt.
The Statue of Liberty was given to the United States by France in 1886. The inscription on its base reads:
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
In short, broad restriction of immigration in various forms has been in place for many years, but we have chosen to ignore breaches of it when it suited the needs of our economy and the sentiments of the time. The US became selective in honoring the Statue of Liberty's idealistic welcome not long after the statue was received.
And so here we are, in 2008, trying to figure out what to do with the current large number of undocumented people and their children, many of whom have been in the US for extended periods of time, and how to effectively control our immigration. We can expect this challenge to become even greater as global climate change displaces even more people from weather-devastated areas.