For the first century of American history, the law was not much concerned with immigration. Apart from some state-enforced public health restrictions, US borders were essentially open to both entry and exit (with the notable exception of slavery). Migration patterns were shaped by economic, political, ethnic, and religious developments, not by legal rules. (U.S. General Accounting Office. 1997)
In 1875, Congress enacted the first federal limitation on immigration (again, apart from laws dealing with the slave trade). Anti-immigrant sentiment increased during subsequent years as immigration from southern and Eastern Europe grew rapidly. In 1906, Congress passed a statute requiring English-language proficiency for naturalization, but failed to enact a literacy test for admission. (Walzer Michael. 1983).
In 1907, as immigration levels swelled, Congress established a national study group (the Dillingham Commission) to review the problem; its massive 1911 report recommended significant restrictions, but none was adopted for another decade. Meanwhile, Congress twice passed literacy requirements for admission, but Presidents Taft and Wilson, like Cleveland before them, vetoed the provisions. In 1917 Congress, reflecting the nationalist passion of the First World War, overrode Wilson's veto and enacted the literacy requirement, while also banning almost all Asian immigration. In 1921, Congress finally adopted the Dillingham approach, enacting a provisional but comprehensive scheme of immigration control. Three years later, this system was institutionalized in the Johnson- Reed legislation. (Schuck Peter, and Rainer Münz, eds. 1997).
This National Origins Act provided for an annual limit of 150,000 Europeans, a complete prohibition on Japanese immigration, and a system of quotas that favored migrants from the traditional source countries (primarily the British Isles, Germany, and Scandinavia). Under these quotas, immigration to the United States remained relatively low but rising during the next four decades: 528,000 in the 1930s, million in the 1940s, 2.5 million in the 1950s, and 3.3 million in the 1960s. (Simon Rita J, 1995).............
