Following the passing of the Immigration Act, Ellis Island opens, bringing us to the
20th century of immigration. During this time, Japanese immigrants caused white
workers to complain once again about depressing wages, lessened job opportunities and
other gripes of the like. Due to this, Japanese-American Gentlemen’s Agreement is
signed in 1907, limiting Japanese emigration to America and lifting segregation of
Japanese students in San Francisco schools. It is because of this new wave of Japanese
workerFollowing the passing of the Immigration Act, Ellis Island opens, bringing us to the
20th century of immigration. During this time, Japanese immigrants caused white
workers to complain once again about depressing wages, lessened job opportunities and
other gripes of the like. Due to this, Japanese-American Gentlemen’s Agreement is
signed in 1907, limiting Japanese emigration to America and lifting segregation of
Japanese students in San Francisco schools. It is because of this new wave of Japanese
workers, plus the 75% of New York’s population who are also immigrants, that
xenophobia andanti-immigrant tensions ran high after America engaged in World War I. It
is in 1917 that another Immigration Act is passed, establishing a literacy requirement for
immigrants entering the nation. This act also halted immigration from most Asian
countries. Yet another iteration of the Immigration Act passed in 1924 placed a quota of
immigrants, but it unfortunately favored immigration from Northern and Western
European countries—completely excluding Asian immigrants save for the American
colony of the Philippines. Illegal immigration soon ramps up in the wake of the newly
established Act, but so does the immigration of Mexicans who arrive through the Bracero
Program, allowing Mexican agricultural workers enter the U.S. to temporarily fill labor
shortages until 1964. Even more immigrants from nations under great political stress like
Hungary and Cuba are admitted following Operation Peter Pan and the Hungarian
Uprising—and the United States continues to uphold its moniker as a nation built upon
immigration.
In 1965, the United States’ immigration quota system finally ends, with the Immigration
and Nationality Act overhauling the entire system that America had been building for
decades. From here on out, the former quota system is replaced with a “seven-category
preference system emphasizing family reunification and skilled immigrants.” With this
change, immigration from war-torn regions of Asia quadruple. Soon, family reunification
and refuge from war becomes the main driving force that compelled many to make the
trip. Come 1986, the Simpson-Mazzoli Act is signed into law by Ronald Reagan, granting
amnesty to over 3 million immigrants residing illegally in America. The signing of this act
marks the beginning of an important new age of immigration, outlining the issue of
illegal immigrants who had been living undocumented into the U.S.—acts like the
Development, Relief, and Education of Alien Minors (DREAM) Act are pitched, but are
unfortunately never passed. However, one act, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
(DACA) was signed by former President Barack Obama in 2012. This act shields some
immigrants who qualify as Dreamers (i.e., illegal immigrants or aliens brought into the
U.S. by parents and guardians as children) from deportation back to their homes—one of
the worst things to happen to a desperate immigrant seeking safety, other than death
and capture. For years, DACA protected many undocumented children from deportation,
but unfortunately, former President Donald Trump issued two executive orders which
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