Statement of the Immigration Laws and Practices of the United States of America Governing the Reception of Immigrants.
Source: John Mendelsohn (ed.) The Holocaust Vol. 5. (New York 1982) p. 230-242.
Introduction
Immigration Policy of the United States
The regulation of immigration into the United States is the sole prerogative of Congress and is effected under statutes enacted by Congress. The immigration policy being followed, as expressed by the statutes, is basically that of negative selection, specified classes of aliens who are undesirable because of mental, physical, moral or economic defects being excluded from admission into the United States, upon which method of selection numerical limitation is superimposed.
PART I
Selection of Immigrants
The excluding provisions of law, referred to above, are principally contained in Section 3 of the Immigration Act of February 5,1917, which prohibits the admission of the following classes of aliens: Mental defectives, being idiots, imbeciles, feeble-minded persons, insane persons, epileptics…. Paupers, professional beggars and vagrants. Diseased persons, being persons afflicted with tuberculosis in any form, or persons afflicted with a loathsome or dangerous contagious disease. Persons who are mentally or physically defective…Criminals… Polygamists. Anarchists and certain other politically undesirable aliens, being chiefly persons opposed to organised government. Prostitutes and procurers Contract labourers, being persons induced, assisted, encouraged, or solicited to migrate by offers or promises of employment, with exception for specified occupational classes and for skilled labour… Persons likely to become a public charge. Persons excluded from admission and deported from the United States… Persons financially assisted to come to the United States, being (a) persons whose ticket or passage is paid for with the money of another, or who are assisted by others to come, unless it is shown that such persons do not belong to one of the foregoing excluded classes, and (b) persons whose ticket or passage is paid for by any corporation, association, society, municipality, or foreign government, directly or indirectly. Stowaways… Children under 16 years of age, unaccompanied by or not coming to a parent, who, however, if not likely to become a public charge, may be admitted within the discretion of the administrative authority. Illiterates over 16 years of age…
PART II
Numerical Limitation of Immigration
The numerical or quota limitations on immigration are imposed by the Immigration Act of 1924. This Act applies to the States, the Territories of Alaska and Hawaii, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The Act defines an “immigrant” as any alien departing from any place outside the United States destined for the United States except one who comes within a specified class of non-immigrants. Immigrants are divided into two classes, non-quota immigrants and quota immigrants. Non-quota immigrants, as the term implies, are not subject to numerical limitation. They are immigrants able to qualify within one of the following categories: Relatives of American citizens, being the unmarried child under 21 years of age, or the wife or the husband …of a citizen of the United States. Returning resident aliens… Natives of Western Hemisphere countries… Ministers and professors, being immigrants who continuously for at least two years immediately preceding the time of their admission into the United States have been, and who seek to enter the United States solely for the purpose of carrying on the vocation of minister or of any religious denomination, or professor of a college, academy, seminary or university, and their wives and unmarried children under 18 years of age accompanying or following to join them. Students, being those who are bona fide students at least 15 years of age who seek to enter the United States solely for the purpose of study at an accredited school… American women who have lost their United States by marriage to aliens… Quota immigrants are other immigrants, who are, as stated, subject to the numerical limitations. The total number of immigrants allowed annually to enter under the quotas is 153'774 which total is apportioned among the countries to which the quota restrictions apply, according to their relative contribution to the American population as enumerated in 1920, with the proviso that the minimum quota for any country shall be 100…A table of the quotas is attached. Quota nationality, that is, the quota to which an immigrant is chargeable, is determined by country of birth, except that to prevent separation of families the law provides that the quota nationality of a child under 21 years of age is to be determined by the country of birth of its accompanying parent… The law places upon American Consuls abroad the responsibility of keeping immigration within the prescribed numerical limits and each quota is under the primary control of a consul (generally located in the capital of the quota country) designated as the quota-control officer of the quota.
