Immigration
The views expressed are those of the presenter and do not
reflect the views or position of the Federal Reserve Bank of
Dallas or the Federal Reserve System.
Where are we going?
• Immigration is a concept that appears in
various locations in the TEKS
• The sweep of the story is important
• Modern debates about immigration are not
new
• The needs of the economy are a powerful
force
A Change in View
• Before 1817 – settlers were referred to as
“emigrants” because they had migrated from
somewhere
• After 1817 – settlers were referred to as
“immigrants” because they had come to a
new nation
Before 1875
• Free immigration
• Few federal laws
– Naturalization Act of 1790 established rules for
citizenship but not immigration
• Why?
– Populate the country
– Allow for growth and development
– National defense (claim the land)
Early Opposition
• Nativism
– Anti-Catholic
– Fear of radicals, especially poor
• Regional patterns lead to localized opposition
– Irish immigration to New York and Massachusetts
– Chinese immigration to California
• 1876 – Henderson v. Mayor of New York
affirmed that Congress had the sole right to
regulate immigration
Legislation
•
•
•
•
Immigration Act of 1882 – 50 cent head tax
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907
Immigration Act of 1917 – literacy test
Goals of Immigration Policy
• Exclude the undesirables
– Criminals and prostitutes (Page Act of 1875)
– Lunatics and people likely to become a public charge
(Immigration Act of 1882)
– Anarchists, people with epilepsy, beggars, prostitutes
and importers of prostitutes (Immigration Act of 1903)
– Paupers, polygamists and illiterate adults (1907 and
1917)
• Protect workers from competition
– Contract labor laws of 1885 and 1887
National Origins Quotas
• Two acts
– Emergency Quota Act of 1921
– Immigration Act of 1924
• Limited immigration to 3% of the 1910
population, then 2% of the 1890 population
• Sought to favor immigrants from western and
northern Europe
Other Provisions of 1924
• Asian immigration further constrained
– Prevented from naturalizing by earlier legislation
– Prevented from entering because they could not
be naturalized
• Mexico and Canada were non-quota nations
– When supply of European labor was cut off,
immigration from Mexico spiked
Legal Permanent Residents from
Mexico
621,218
498,945
441,824
273,847
185,334
56,158
32,709
31,188
3,835
7,187
3,069
3,446
1,950
5,133
2,405
734
1820s
1830s
1840s
1850s
1860s
1870s
1880s
1890s
1900s
1910s
1920s
U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (2011). Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2010.
Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
Great Depression
• Richard Goodman, Program #1977-09,
Mexican Americans During the Great
Depression,
www.laits.utexas.edu/onda_latina/index.
World War II and the Bracero Program
• Created in 1942 to address wartime labor
shortages
• Brought in about 200,000 Mexican workers
annually for 22 years
• Intended to admit workers for short-term
employment
McCarren-Walter Act (1952)
• Reaffirmed a strict quota system
• Ended Asian exclusions, but did not equalize
treatment
• Created a preference system within each
country’s quota allotment
– Half went to “highly skilled immigrants whose
services are urgently needed”
– Half went to family members of permanent
residents
Truman’s Veto
• Strongly worded veto on June 25, 1952
• “The greatest vice of the present quota
system, however, is that it discriminates,
deliberately and intentionally, against many of
the peoples of the world.”
• Congress passed the bill over Truman’s veto
on June 27.
Growth of Illegal Immigration
• Bracero Program was highly bureaucratic and
was often bypassed
• Strong demand for labor incentivized
migration
• Texas growers were initially excluded from the
Bracero Program and lobbied for the “Texas
proviso” in the McCarren-Walter Act
• Proviso explicitly permitted the employment
of illegal immigrants
Hart-Cellar Act (1965)
• Ended the provisions that discriminated against
Asians and mandated that the quota system be
phased out by 1968
• Placed a ceiling on immigration
– Western Hemisphere – 120,000
– Eastern Hemisphere – 170,000
• New preference system
– Strongly favored family reunification
– Non-family immigrants required to certify that
American workers were not available for their jobs
Revisions
• Hart-Cellar treated Eastern and Western
Hemispheres differently
• 1976
– Preference system and labor certification
requirements for EH and WH reconciled
– Country cap of 20,000 was extended to WH
• 1978
– EH and WH ceilings were combined for a total
ceiling of 290,000
Implications for Mexico
• Bracero Program had allowed 200,000 seasonal
or temporary workers each year
• New ceiling of 20,000 permanent residents from
Mexico
• No program for seasonal workers
• Estimates suggest that from 1965 to 1986 there
was
– Net undocumented inflow of 4.6 million Mexicans
– Less than 1.3 million Mexicans granted legal
permanent resident status
Immigration Reform and Control Act
(1986)
• Allowed unauthorized immigrants to legalize
their status
• Required employers to verify legal status to
work in the U.S. (and established employer
penalties)
• Created a temporary immigration program for
seasonal agricultural workers (H-2A program)
Other Changes
• Immigration Act of 1990
– Raised the total limit and cap on employmentbased permanent immigration
– Created H-1B (skilled) and H-2B (unskilled)
temporary worker programs
– Maintained emphasis on family ties and created
some special exceptions
• NAFTA
– Created TN program for temporary work permits
for Canadian and Mexican professionals
Sources
• Harry S. Truman: "Veto of Bill To Revise the Laws Relating to Immigration,
Naturalization, and Nationality.," June 25, 1952. Online by Gerhard Peters
and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=14175.
• U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (2011). Yearbook of Immigration
Statistics: 2010. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
• National Research Council. (2013). Options for Estimating Illegal Entries at
the U.S.–Mexico Border. Panel on Survey Options for Estimating the Flow
of Unauthorized Crossings at the U.S.-Mexican Border, A. Carriquiry and
M. Majmundar, Eds. Committee on National Statistics, Division of
Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: The
National Academies Press.
• Pia M. Orrenius and Madeline Zavodny. Beside the Golden Door: U.S.
Immigration Reform in a New Era of Globalization. Washington, D.C.: AEI
Press, 2010.