.svg) | |
| Other short titles | Burnett Act |
|---|---|
| Long title | An Act to regulate the immigration of aliens to, and the residence of aliens in, the United States. |
| Enacted by | the64th United States Congress |
| Citations | |
| Public law | Pub. L. 64–301 |
| Statutes at Large | 39 Stat. 874 |
| Legislative history | |
| |
TheImmigration Act of 1917, or theBurnett Act,[1] was aUnited StatesAct that aimed to restrictimmigration by imposing literacy tests on immigrants, creating new categories of inadmissible persons, and barring immigration from theAsia–Pacific region. The most sweeping immigration act the United States had passed until then was theChinese Exclusion Act of 1882 in marking a turn towardnativism. The 1917 act governed immigration policy until it was amended by theImmigration Act of 1924; both acts were revised by theImmigration and Nationality Act of 1952.
Various groups, including theImmigration Restriction League had supported literacy as a prerequisite for immigration from its formation in 1894. In 1895,Henry Cabot Lodge had introduced a bill to theUnited States Senate to impose a mandate for literacy for immigrants, using a test requiring them to read five lines from the Constitution. Though the bill passed, it was vetoed by PresidentGrover Cleveland in 1897. In 1901, PresidentTheodore Roosevelt lent support for the idea in his first address[2] but the resulting proposal was defeated in 1903. A literacy test was included in a US Senate immigration bill of 1906, but the House of Representatives did not agree to this, and the test was dropped in the conference committee finalizing what became theImmigration Act of 1907.[3] Literacy was introduced again in 1912 and though it passed, it was vetoed by PresidentWilliam Howard Taft.[4] By 1915, yet another bill with a literacy requirement was passed. It was vetoed by PresidentWoodrow Wilson because he felt that literacy tests denied equal opportunity to those who had not been educated.[2][5]
As early as 1882, previous immigration acts had leviedhead taxes on aliens entering the country to offset the cost of their care if they became indigent. These acts excluded immigrants from Canada or Mexico,[6] as did subsequent amendments to the amount of the head tax.[7] TheImmigration Act of 1882 prohibited entry to the US forconvicts,indigent people who could not provide for their own care,prostitutes, and lunatics or idiots.[8] TheAlien Contract Labor Law of 1885 prohibited employers from contracting with foreign laborers and bringing them into the US,[9] though US employers continued to recruit Mexican contract laborers assuming they would just return home.[10] After the assassination of PresidentWilliam McKinley by theanarchistLeon Czolgosz on September 6, 1901, several immigration Acts were passed which broadened the defined categories of "undesireables." TheImmigration Act of 1903 expanded barred categories to include anarchists,epileptics and those who had had episodes ofinsanity.[11] Those who hadinfectious diseases and those who hadphysical ormental disabilities which would hamper their ability to work were added to the list of excluded immigrants in theImmigration Act of 1907.[12]
Anxiety over the fragmentation of American cultural identity led to many laws aimed at stemming the "Yellow Peril," the perceived threat of Asian societies replacing the American identity.[13] Laws restrictingAsian immigration to the United States had first appeared in California as state laws.[14] With the enactment of theNaturalization Act of 1870, which denied citizenship toChinese immigrants and forbade all Chinese women,[15] exclusionary policies moved into the federal sphere. Exclusion of women aimed to cement a bachelor society, making Chinese men unable to form families and thus, transient, temporary immigrants.[16] Barred categories expanded with thePage Act of 1875, which established that Chinese,Japanese, andorientalbonded labor, convicts, and prostitutes were forbidden entry to the US.[17] TheChinese Exclusion Act of 1882 barred Chinese people from entering the US and theGentlemen's Agreement of 1907 was made withJapan to cease Japanese immigration to the US.[18]
On February 5, 1917, the Immigration Act of 1917 was passed by the64th United States Congress with an overwhelming majority, overriding PresidentWoodrow Wilson's December 14, 1916, veto.[4] This act added to and consolidated the list of undesirables banned from entering the country, including: alcoholics, anarchists, contract laborers, criminals, convicts, epileptics, "feebleminded persons", "idiots", "illiterates", "imbeciles", "insane persons", "paupers", "persons afflicted with contagious disease", "persons being mentally or physically defective", "persons with constitutional psychopathic inferiority", "political radicals", polygamists, prostitutes, and vagrants.[19]
For the first time, an immigration law of the US affected European immigration, with the provision barring all immigrants over the age of sixteen who wereilliterate. Literacy was defined as the ability to read 30–40 words of their own language from an ordinary text.[4] The act reaffirmed the ban on contracted labor, but made a provision for temporary labor. This allowed laborers to obtain temporary permits because they were inadmissible as immigrants. The waiver program allowed continued recruitment of Mexican agricultural and railroad workers.[22] Legal interpretation on the terms "mentally defective" and "persons with constitutional psychopathic inferiority" effectively included a ban on homosexual immigrants who admitted their sexual orientation.[23]
One section of the law designated an "Asiatic Barred Zone" from which people could not immigrate, including much ofAsia and thePacific Islands. The zone, defined through longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates,[21] excluded immigrants fromChina,British India,Afghanistan,Arabia,Burma (Myanmar),Siam (Thailand), theMalay States, theDutch East Indies, theSoviet Union east of theUral Mountains, and mostPolynesian islands.[24][21] Neither thePhilippines nor Japan was included in the Asiatic Barred Zone.[21] The description of the zone is as follows:
...unless otherwise provided for by existing treaties, persons who are natives of islands not possessed by the United States adjacent to the continent of Asia, situated south of thetwentieth parallel latitude north, west of theone hundred and sixtieth meridian of longitude east from Greenwich, and north of thetenth parallel of latitude south, or who are natives of any country, province, or dependency situated on the continent of Asia west of theone hundred and tenth meridian of longitude east from Greenwich and east of thefiftieth meridian of longitude east from Greenwich and south of thefiftieth parallel of latitude north, except that portion of said territory situate between thefiftieth and thesixth-fourth meridians of longitude east from Greenwich and thetwenty-fourth andthirty-eight parallels of latitude north, and no alien now in any way excluded from, or prevented from entering, the United States shall be admitted to the United States.[citation needed]
The 1917 Asian exclusions did not apply to those working in certain professional occupations and their immediate families: "(1) Government officers, (2) ministers or religious teachers, (3) missionaries, (4) lawyers, (5) physicians, (6) chemists, (7) civil engineers, (8) teachers, (9) students, (10) authors, (11) artists, (12) merchants, and (13) travelers for curiosity or pleasure".[25]
The law also increased the head tax to $8 per person, and ended the exclusion of Mexican workers from the head tax.[7]
Almost immediately, the provisions of the law were challenged bysouthwestern businesses. US entry intoWorld War I, a few months after the law's passage, prompted a waiver of the act's provisions on Mexican agricultural workers. It was soon extended to include Mexicans working in the mining and railroad industries; these exemptions continued through 1921.[7] The act was modified by theImmigration Act of 1924, which imposed general quotas on the Eastern Hemisphere and extended the Asiatic Barred Zone to Japan. DuringWorld War II, the US modified the immigration acts with quotas for their allies in China and the Philippines.[26] TheLuce–Celler Act of 1946 ended discrimination againstAsian Indians andFilipinos, who were accorded the right to naturalization, and allowed a quota of 100 immigrants per year.
The Immigration Act of 1917 was later altered formally by theImmigration and Nationality Act of 1952, known as the McCarran-Walter Act. McCarren-Walter extended the privilege of naturalization to Japanese,Koreans, and other Asians,[27] revised all previous laws and regulations regarding immigration, naturalization, and nationality, and collected them into one comprehensive statute.[28] Legislation barring homosexuals as immigrants remained part of the immigration code until passage of theImmigration Act of 1990.[29]
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