Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
.svg) |
|
| Nickname(s) | Hart-Celler Act |
|---|---|
| Enacted by the | 89th United States Congress |
| Effective | June 30, 1968 |
| Citations | |
| Public Law | Pub. L. 89-236 |
| Stat. | 79 Stat. 911 |
| Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 | |
| Title(s) amended | 8 |
| U.S.C. section(s) amended | 201 |
| Legislative history | |
|
|
| Codification | |
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (Hart-Celler Act, INS, Act of 1965, Pub.L. 89–236)[1] abolished the National Origins Formula that had been in place in the United States since the Emergency Quota Act. It was proposed by United States Representative Emanuel Celler of New York, co-sponsored by United States Senator Philip Hart of Michigan and heavily supported by United States Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts.
The Hart-Celler Act abolished the national origins quota system that was American immigration policy since the 1920s, replacing it with a preference system that focused on immigrants' skills and family relationships with citizens or U.S. residents. Numerical restrictions on visas were set at 170,000 per year, with a per-country-of-origin quota, not including immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, nor "special immigrants" (including those born in "independent" nations in the Western Hemisphere, former citizens, ministers, and employees of the U.S. government abroad).[1]
Contents |
Background [edit]
The 1965 act marked a radical break from the immigration policies of the past. The law as it stood then excluded Latin America, Asians and Africans and preferred northern and western Europeans over southern and eastern ones.[2] At the height of the civil rights movement of the 1960s the law was seen as an embarrassment by, among others, President John F. Kennedy, who called the then-quota-system "nearly intolerable".[3] After Kennedy's assassination, President Lyndon Johnson signed the bill at the foot of the Statue of Liberty as a symbolic gesture.
In order to convince the American populace - the majority of whom were opposed to the act - of the legislation's merits, its liberal proponents assured that passage would not influence America's culture significantly. President Johnson called the bill "not a revolutionary bill. It does not affect the lives of millions",[4] while Secretary of State Dean Rusk estimated only a few thousand Indian immigrants over the next five years, and other politicians, including Senator Ted Kennedy, hastened to reassure the populace that the demographic mix would not be affected; these assertions would later prove wildly inaccurate.[5]
In line with earlier immigration law, the bill also prohibited the entry into the country of "sexual deviants", including homosexuals. By doing so it crystallized the policy of the INS that had previously been rejecting homosexual immigrants on the grounds that they were "mentally defective" or had a "constitutional psychopathic inferiority".[6]
Congressional consideration [edit]
The House of Representatives voted 320 to 70 in favor of the act, while the Senate passed the bill by a vote of 76 to 18. In the senate, 52 Democrats voted yes, 14 no, and 1 abstained. Of the Republicans, 24 voted yes, 3 voted no, and 1 abstained.[7] The House voted 320-70 to pass the 1965 Immigration & Naturalization Act with 202 Democrats voting yes, 60 no and 12 not voting, 117 Republicans voting yes, 10 no and 11 not voting. One unknown representative voted yes.[8] In total, 74% of Democrats and 85% of Republicans voted for passage of this bill. Most of the no votes were from the American South, which was then still strongly Democratic. On October 3, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the legislation into law, saying "This [old] system violates the basic principle of American democracy, the principle that values and rewards each man on the basis of his merit as a man. It has been un-American in the highest sense, because it has been untrue to the faith that brought thousands to these shores even before we were a country".[9]
Long-term results [edit]
Immigration changed America's demographics, opening the doors to immigrants from Latin America (especially Mexico), Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. By the 1990s, America's population growth was more than one-third driven by legal immigration and substantially augmented by illegal immigration population namely from Latin America and other parts of the developing world, as opposed to one-tenth before the act was passed into law. Ethnic and racial minorities, as defined by the US Census Bureau, rose from 25 percent of the US population during the year 1990 to 30 percent in the year 2000 and to 36.6 percent as per the results from 2011 census results.[10] Similarly, during the same time period the Non-Hispanic white population in the United States decreased from 75 percent of the overall US population in 1990 to 70 percent in 2000 and finally to 63.4 percent during the year 2011.[10] It is estimated that by the year 2042, white people not referring to themselves as Hispanic will constitute no longer a majority but rather only a plurality of the population of the United States, while racial and ethnic minority groups, led by the Hispanics (mainly Mexican Americans), Black Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Pacific Islander Americans would together outnumber non-Hispanic White Americans. According to the 2000 census, roughly 11.1 percent of the American population was foreign-born, a major increase from the low of 4.7 percent in 1970. A third of the foreign-born were from Latin America and a fourth from Asia. The act increased illegal immigration from Latin America, especially Mexico, since the unlimited legal bracero system previously in-place was cut.
The waves of immigration have raised both possibilities and problems. Many immigrants have taken advantage of the abundance of opportunities in the US, although some immigrant groups continue to face major challenges. For example, Asian Indians in the U.S. have a higher average income and lower poverty rate than the national average while Vietnamese Americans (mostly from refugee backgrounds) have median earnings less than the national average and a higher poverty rate.[11] Asians and Pacific Islanders (including international students from Asia) constituted 30 percent of the student population in California's public universities by 2000 and over 38% of the student population by 2011. Immigration helped stimulate the sunbelt boom.[citation needed] The problems have centered on questions of multicultural identity as opposed to the melting-pot idea, debates on the economic impact of immigration, impact of illegal immigration, and fears of becoming a polyglot nation with English not the primary language.[12]
See also [edit]
- History of laws concerning immigration and naturalization in the United States
- Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952
- Luce–Celler Act of 1946
References [edit]
- ^ a b Sarah Starkweather. "US immigration legislation online". University of Washington, Bothell Library. Retrieved January 1, 2012.
- ^ "A Nation of Immigrants". NSIDE SA. September 2012.
- ^ "235 - Remarks to Delegates of the American Committee on Italian Migration.". The American Presidency Project. June 11, 1963.
- ^ Johnson, L.B., (1965). President Lyndon B. Johnson's Remarks at the Signing of the Immigration Bill. Liberty Island, New York October 3, 1965 transcript at lbjlibrary .
- ^ Jennifer Ludden. "1965 immigration law changed face of America". NPR.
- ^ Tracy J. Davis. "Opening the Doors of Immigration: Sexual Orientation and Asylum in the United States". Human Rights Brief 6 (3).
- ^ Keith Poole. "Senate Vote #232 (Sep 22, 1965)". Civic Impulse, LLC.
- ^ Keith Poole. "House Vote #177 (Sep 30, 1965)". Civic Impulse, LLC.
- ^ "Remarks at the Signing of the Immigration Bill, Liberty Island, New York". October 3, 1965. Retrieved January 1, 2012.
- ^ a b [1]
- ^ U.S. Census Bureau (December 2004). [http"//www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/censr-17.pdf "We the People:Asians in the United States"] Check
|url=scheme (help). Retrieved September 10, 2012. - ^ Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies, Portland State University (August 2011). "Immigration & naturalization act of 1965: Origin of modern American society". Retrieved January 1, 2012.
External links [edit]
- Immigration Policy in the United States (2006), Congressional Budget office.
- Immigration and Nationality Act (2011) HTML version
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
