Emergency Quota Act

The Emergency Quota Act, also known as the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921, the Immigration Restriction Act of 1921, the Per Centum Law, and the Johnson Quota Act (ch. 8, 42 Stat. 5 of May 19, 1921) was formulated mainly in response to the large influx of Southern and Eastern Europeans, thus successfully restricting their immigration and that of other "undesirables" into the United States. Although intended as temporary legislation, the Act "proved in the long run the most important turning-point in American immigration policy"[2] because it added two new features to American immigration law: numerical limits on immigration and the use of a quota system for establishing those limits. These limits came to be known as the National Origins Formula.

Emergency Quota Act
Other short titles
  • Emergency Immigration Act of 1921
  • Immigration Restriction Act of 1921
  • Johnson Quota Act
Long titleAn Act to limit the immigration of aliens into the United States.[1]
NicknamesPer Centum Limit Act
Enacted bythe 67th United States Congress
EffectiveMay 19, 1921
Citations
Public lawPub.L. 67–5
Statutes at Large42 Stat. 5
Legislative history
  • Introduced in the House as H.R. 4075 by Albert Johnson (R-WA)
  • Passed the House on April 22, 1921 (passed voice vote)
  • Passed the Senate on May 3, 1921 (90-2)
  • Reported by the joint conference committee on May 5, 1921; agreed to by the House on May 13, 1921 (285-41) and by the Senate on May 13, 1921 (agreed)
  • Signed into law by President Warren G. Harding on May 19, 1921

The Emergency Quota Act restricted the number of immigrants admitted from any country annually to 3% of the number of residents from that same country living in the United States as of the U.S. Census of 1910.[3] This meant that people from northern European countries had a higher quota and were more likely to be admitted to the U.S. than people from eastern Europe, southern Europe, or other, non-European countries. Professionals were to be admitted without regard to their country of origin. The Act set no limits on immigration from Latin America. The act did not apply to countries with bilateral agreements with the US, or to Asian countries listed in the Immigration Act of 1917, known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act.[1] However, the Act was not seen as restrictive enough since millions of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe had come into the USA since 1890. The Immigration Act of 1924 reduced the Quota to 2% per the Census of 1890 when a fairly small percentage of the population was from the regions regarded as less than desirable. In order to execute the quota, the visa system still in use today was implemented in 1924. [4] It was mandated that all non-citizens seeking to enter the United States needed to obtain and present a visa that was obtained from a U.S. Embassy and Consulate before arrival in the United States.[5] Immigration inspectors handled the visa packets depending on whether they were Non-Immigrant, meaning visitor, or Immigrant, indicating permanent admission.[5] Non-immigrant visas were kept at the ports of entry and were later destroyed, while immigrant visas were sent to the Central Office in Washington D.C. for processing and filing.[5]

Based on that formula, the number of new immigrants admitted fell from 805,228 in 1920 to 309,556 in 1921-22.[6] The average annual inflow of immigrants prior to 1921 was 175,983 from Northern and Western Europe, and 685,531 from other countries, principally Southern and Eastern Europe. In 1921, there was a drastic reduction in immigration levels from other countries, principally Southern and Eastern Europe.

Following the end of World War I, both Europe and the United States were experiencing economic and social upheaval. In Europe, the destruction of the war, the Russian Revolution, and the dissolutions of both the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires led to greater immigration to the United States; while in the United States, an economic downturn following post-war demobilization increased unemployment. The combination of increased immigration from Europe at the time of higher American unemployment strengthened the anti-immigrant movement.

The act, sponsored by Rep. Albert Johnson (R-Washington),[7] was passed without a recorded vote in the U.S. House of Representatives and by a vote of 90-2-4 in the U.S. Senate.[8]

The Act was revised by the Immigration Act of 1924.

The use of such a National Origins Formula continued until 1965 when the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 replaced it with a system of preferences based on immigrants' skills and family relationships with U.S. citizens or U.S. residents.

See also
  • Dillingham Commission
  • List of United States immigration legislation

References
  1. "1921 Emergency Quota Law (An act to limit the immigration of aliens into the United States)". US immigration legislation online. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  2. John Higham, Strangers in the Land (1963), 311
  3. Divine, Robert A. (2007) America, Past and Present, 8th ed., 736
  4. "Closing the Door on Immigration (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2019-10-31.
  5. "Visa Files, July 1, 1924 - March 31, 1944". USCIS. 2016-02-09. Retrieved 2019-10-31.
  6. Robert K. Murray, The 103rd Ballot: Democrats and the Disaster in Madison Square Garden (NY: Harper & Row, 1976), 7
  7. "1921 Emergency Quota Act". American Catholic History Classroom. Archived from the original on 2012-01-21. Retrieved 2012-01-05.
  8. "Senate Vote #21 (May 3, 1921)". govtrack.us. Retrieved 20 May 2011.

Further reading
  • Nathan Miller, New World Coming. Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 2003
  • John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism. 2nd ed. New York: Atheneum, 1963. (First edition published by Rutgers University Press in 1955)
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