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The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965
In 1965 Lyndon Baines Johnson managed to persuade Congress to pass a new Immigration Act. This new legislation brought to an end quotas based on national origin. Instead, the main factor of selection was the occupation of the applicant. Preference was given to those who had relatives already in the United States. Race, religion, color and national origin, was no longer factors in the selective process.
In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed a bill that has dramatically changed the method by which immigrants are admitted to America. This bill is the Immigration Act of 1965. This act, also known as the Hart-Cellar Act [1], not only allows more individuals from third world countries to enter the US (including Asians, who have traditionally been hindered from entering America), but also entails a separate quota for refugees. [2] Under the Act, 170,000 immigrants from the Eastern Hemisphere are granted residency, with no more than 20,000 per country. One hundred twenty thousand immigrants from the Western Hemisphere, with no national limitations, are also to be admitted. [3] The significance of this bill was that future immigrants were to be welcomed because of their skills/professions, and not for their countries of origin. Before President Johnson signed this bill, the Senate voted 76 to 18 in favor of this act, with the most opposition votes cast by Southern delegates. The House voted 326 to 69 in favor of the act. [4]
The main reason the Immigration Act was the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement was to rid America of racial/ethnic discrimination. Two other bills, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Johnson signed for the same reason. [5] The Immigration Act was therefore a corrective measure instituted to atone for past history of discrimination in immigration.
Two earlier laws reflecting this discrimination were the National Origins Act of the 1924 and the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952. [6] Both of these granted residency on the basis of national origin, and were particularly discriminative towards Asians. For instance, under the McCarran-Walter Act, while the quota for European immigrants was 149,667, the quota for Asian immigrants was 2,990, and the African quota was 1,400. [7] The Immigration Act of 1965, therefore, shifted the focus to non-European countries, especially those of the third world. Both Johnson and President Kennedy wished that by reforming immigration law, they would not only gain auspicious international relations (especially with non-White nations), but they would also confirm Americas bedrock principles of America being a free country, where everyone is considered equal. [8]
Immigrants granted residency in America are now considered for admittance based on skill or for family reunification. More specifically, immigrants are accepted according to following preferences: unmarried adults whose parents are American citizens, spouses and offspring of permanent residents, gifted professionals, scientists, and artists. The last preferences are the following: married offspring of American citizens, siblings of adult citizens, skilled/unskilled individuals of occupations lacking workers in America, and refugees from either communist (or communist-controlled) countries, or those from the Middle-East. [9] The Immigration Act of 1965 became law on July 1, 1968. [10] Even though the Immigration Act of 1965 was not implemented to bring an immediate end to discrimination, it was definitely seen as a major contributor in ending it.
Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of October 3, 1965 (79 Statutes-at-Large 911) Provisions: a. Abolished the national origins quota system (see the Immigration Act of 1924 and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952), eliminating national origin, race, or ancestry as a basis for immigration to the United States. b. Established allocation of immigrant visas on a first come, first served basis, subject to a seven-category preference system for relatives of U.S. citizens and permanent resident aliens (for the reunification of families) and for persons with special occupational skills, abilities, or training (needed in the United States). c. Established two categories of immigrants not subject to numerical restrictions: 1. Immediate relatives (spouses, children, parents) of U.S. citizens, and 2. Special immigrants: certain ministers of religion; certain former employees of the U.S. government abroad; certain persons who lost citizenship (e.g., by marriage or by service in foreign armed forces); and certain foreign medical graduates. d. Maintained the principle of numerical restriction, expanding limits to world coverage by limiting Eastern Hemisphere immigration to 170,000 and placing a ceiling on Western Hemisphere immigration (120,000) for the first time. However, neither the preference categories nor the 20,000 per-country limit were applied to the Western Hemisphere. e. Introduced a prerequisite for the issuance of a visa of an affirmative finding by the Secretary of Labor that an alien seeking to enter as a worker will not replace a worker in the United States nor adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed individuals in the United States.
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