Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart–Celler Act and more recently as the 1965 Immigration Act, was a federal law passed by the 89th United States Congress and signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The law abolished the National Origins Formula, which had been the basis of U.S. immigration policy since the 1920s. The act formally removed de facto discrimination against Southern and Eastern Europeans as well as Asians, in addition to other non-Western and Northern European ethnicities from the immigration policy of the United States.
The National Origins Formula had been established in the 1920s to preserve American homogeneity by promoting immigration from Western and Northern Europe. During the 1960s, at the height of the civil rights movement, this approach increasingly came under attack for being racially discriminatory. The bill is based on the draft bill sent to the Congress by President John F. Kennedy, who opposed the immigration formulas, in 1963, and was introduced by Senator Philip Hart and Congressman Emanuel Celler. However, its passage was stalled due to opposition from conservative Congressmen.
With the support of the Johnson administration, Celler and Hart introduced the bill again in 1965 to repeal the formula. The bill received wide support from both northern Democratic and Republican members of Congress, but strong opposition mostly from Southern Democrats, the latter mostly voting Nay or Not Voting. President Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 into law on October 3, 1965. Prior to the Act, the U.S. was 85% White, with Black people making up 11%, while Latinos made up less than 4%. In opening entry to the U.S. to immigrants other than Western and Northern Europeans, the Act significantly altered the demographic mix in the country.
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 created a seven-category preference system that gives priority to relatives and children of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents, professionals and other individuals with specialized skills, and refugees. The act also set a numerical limit on immigration from the Western Hemisphere for the first time in U.S. history. Within the following decades, the United States would see an increased number of immigrants from Asia and Africa, as well as Eastern and Southern Europe.
Background
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 marked a radical break from U.S. immigration policies of the past. Since Congress restricted naturalized citizenship to "white persons" in 1790, laws had restricted immigration from Asia and Africa, and gave preference to Northern and Western Europeans over Southern and Eastern Europeans. During this period, new arrivals in the United States were overwhelmingly either Northern Europeans of Protestant faith or, prior to 1808, Western Africans brought in to serve as slaves. This pattern shifted in the mid to late 19th century for both the Western and Eastern regions of the United States. There was a large influx of immigration from Asia in the Western region—especially from China, whose workers provided cheap labor—while Eastern and Southern European immigrants settled more in the Eastern United States.Congress responded to changing demographics of immigration with exclusionary legislation. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 stanched the inflow of Chinese immigrants, and the Immigration Act of 1917 imposed a language proficiency requirement for new immigrants, which greatly reduced immigration from outside of northwest Europe. The Emergency Immigration Act of 1921 restricted the rate of immigration from all countries to the 1910 level. Finally, the Immigration Act of 1924 permanently established the National Origins Formula, with its restrictions on arrivals from Asia, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe, as the basis of U.S. immigration policy. According to the Office of the Historian of the U.S. Department of State, the purpose of the 1924 Act was "to preserve the ideal of U.S. homogeneity" by limiting immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe. The National Socialist Handbook for Law and Legislation of 1934–35, edited by the lawyer Hans Frank, contains a pivotal essay by Herbert Kier on the recommendations for race legislation which devoted a quarter of its pages to U.S. legislation, including race-based citizenship laws, anti-miscegenation laws, and immigration laws. Adolf Hitler wrote of his admiration of America's immigration laws in Mein Kampf, saying:
In the 1960s, the United States faced both foreign and domestic pressures to change its nation-based formula, which was regarded as a system that discriminated based on an individual's place of birth. Abroad, former military allies and new independent nations aimed to de-legitimize discriminatory immigration, naturalization and regulations through international organizations like the United Nations. In the United States, the national-based formula had been under scrutiny for a number of years. In 1952, President Truman had directed the Commission on Immigration and Naturalization to conduct an investigation and produce a report on the current immigration regulations. The report, Whom We Shall Welcome, served as the blueprint for the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. At the height of the Civil Rights Movement the restrictive immigration laws were seen as an embarrassment. At the time of the act's passing, many high-ranking politicians favored this bill to be passed, including President Lyndon B. Johnson. However, only about half the public reciprocated these feelings, which can be seen in a Gallup Organization poll in 1965 asking whether they were in favor of getting rid of the national quota act, and 51 percent were in favor. The act was pressured by high-ranking officials and interest groups to be passed, which it was passed on October 3, 1965. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1965 act into law at the foot of the Statue of Liberty, ending preferences for white immigrants dating to the 18th century.
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 did not make it fully illegal for the United States government to discriminate against individuals, which included members of the LGBTQ+ community to be prohibited under the legislation. The Immigration and Naturalization Service continued to deny entry to prospective immigrants who are in the LGBTQ+ community on the grounds that they were "mentally defective", or had a "constitutional psychopathic inferiority" until the Immigration Act of 1990 rescinded the provision discriminating against members of the LGBT+ community.
Legislative history
In 1958, Senator John F. Kennedy or his team penned a pamphlet titled A Nation of Immigrants, opposing the immigration quotas set forth in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, after being convinced to do so by the Anti-Defamation League. The content of the pamphlet was based on the ideas of the historian Oscar Handlin and an outline by his student Arthur Mann, with Kennedy's version de-emphasizing the difficulties in assimilation of immigrants elucidated by Handlin and Mann, and promoting a more idealistic view. Immigration reform was promoted by Kennedy during his 1960 presidential campaign, with support from his brothers Robert F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy.Following Kennedy's civil rights address in June 1963, he had Robert, who was the United States Attorney General, prepare a draft bill, which was authored by Adam Walinsky, and sent it to the Congress on July 23, 1963. The bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by Emanuel Celler, who had advocated for such an immigration reform since the 1920s, and by Philip Hart in the Senate. Ted was assigned to ensure the passage of the bill through the Congress.
The act had a long history of trying to get passed by Congress. It had been introduced a number of times to the Senate between March 14, 1960, when it was first introduced, to August 19, 1965, which was the last time it was presented. It was hard to pass this law under Kennedy's administration because Senator James Eastland, Representative Michael Feighan, and Representative Francis Walter, who were in control of the immigration subcommittees, were against immigration reform. When President Lyndon B. Johnson became president on January 8, 1964, he pressured Congress to act upon reform in immigration. However, this president's support did not stop the debate of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 until January 4, 1965, when President Johnson focused his inaugural address on the reform of immigration, which created intense pressure for the heads of the congressional immigration subcommittees.
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 in the 89th Congress
With the support of President Johnson's Administration, Representative Emanuel Celler introduced the Immigration and Nationality bill, H.R. 2580. Emanuel Celler was a senior representative, as well as the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee. When Celler introduced the bill, he knew that it would be hard for this bill to move from the committee to the floor successfully; the bill's committee was the Immigration and Nationality subcommittee. The chair of the subcommittee was Representative Feighan, who was against immigration reform. In the end, a compromise was made where immigration based on familial reunification is more critical than immigration based on labor and skilled workers. Later, Senator Philip Hart introduced the Immigration and Nationality bill, S.500, to the Senate.Congressional hearings
During the subcommittee's hearing on Immigration and Naturalization of the Committee in the Judiciary United States Senate, many came forward to voice their support or opposition to the bill. Many higher-ranking officials in the executive and legislative branches, like Dean Rusk and Abba P. Schwartz, came forward with active support. Also, many cultural and civil rights organizations, like the Order Sons of Italy in America, and the Grand Council of Columbia Association in Civil Service, supported the act. Many of the bill's supporters believed that this future would outlaw racism and prejudice rhetoric that previous immigration quotas have caused; this prejudice has also caused other nations to feel like the United States did not respect them due to their low rating in the previous immigration quotas. Many also believed that this act would highly benefit the United States' economy because the act focused on allowing skilled workers to enter the United States.On the other hand, many lobbyists and organizations, such as the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Baltimore Anti-Communistic League, came to the hearing to explain their opposition. Many of the opposition believed that this bill would be against American welfare. The common argument that they used was that if the government allowed more immigrants into the United States, more employment opportunities would be taken away from the American workforce. While the farmers' organizations, like the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Council of Agricultural, argued that this legislation would be hazardous for the agricultural industry due to the section regarding a limit of immigration of the Western Hemisphere. Before this act, there was no limitation with the immigration of the Western Hemisphere, which allowed many migrant workers in the agricultural industry to easily move from countries in the Western Hemisphere to farms in the United States during critical farming seasons. These agricultural organizations believed that this act could cause issues for migrant workers to enter the United States.