Immigration Act of 1917: Nativism Bans Asian Entry
Congress overrode President Wilson's veto to enact the Immigration Act of 1917 on February 5, creating an 'Asiatic Barred Zone' that prohibited immigration from virtually all of Asia, including India, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. The law also imposed a literacy test requiring all immigrants over sixteen to demonstrate reading ability in any language, a provision designed to reduce Southern and Eastern European immigration. The act represented the culmination of decades of nativist agitation that had begun with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and expanded to target increasingly broad categories of 'undesirable' immigrants. Wilson vetoed the bill twice on the grounds that the literacy test was un-American, but Congress overrode him both times with supermajorities. The 1917 Act established the legal framework for even more restrictive quotas in 1921 and 1924 that effectively shut America's doors to most of the world for forty years.
February 5, 1917
109 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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