Asian American History and the Making of the U.S. Immigration System

Repeal Of Asian Exclusion

Magnuson Act (1943)

The importance of China as a major U.S. ally in the Pacific war against Japan led Congress to repeal the Chinese Exclusion laws, placing China under the same immigration restrictions as European countries established under the 1924 Johnson-Reed Act. Chinese immigrants became the first Asians eligible to naturalize and gain citizenship while China’s annual immigration quota, however, allowed only about 100 Chinese immigrant admittance each year, as the Chinese population in the United States was so low.¹⁸

Luce-Celler Act (1946)

This law also pulled the Philippines and India out of the Asiatic Barred Zone and granted Filipino and Asian Indian immigrants the right to naturalize as American citizens.  Similar to the repeal of Chinese exclusion, Luce-Celler established a small annual immigration quota of 100 individuals for each group. It emphasized Cold War foreign relations over racial discrimination by extending the naturalization rights. The Philippines gained independence from the United States in 1946 as did India from Great Britain in 1947.¹⁹

McCarran-Walter Act (1952)

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 upheld the national origins quota system established by the Immigration Act of 1924, reinforcing this controversial system of immigrant selection. This act ended the language “free white person” initially established in 1790.” It also ended Asian exclusion and introduced a system of preferences based on skill sets and family reunification. The Asia-Pacific Triangle was a highly restrictive geographic and racial quota zone established by this law, limiting immigration from across Asia and the Pacific to 100 visas per country annually, except for Japan which was allowed 200. This established a total cap of 2,000 for the triangle.²⁰

War Brides Act (1945)

This legislation, enacted on December 28, 1945, aimed “To expedite the admission to the United States of alien spouses and alien minor children of citizen members of the United States armed forces.” War Brides and their dependents were exempted from the quota systems of the Immigration Act of 1924 and granted free passage to the U.S.²¹

Immigration Act (1965)

Also known as the Hart-Celler Act the law overhauled America’s immigration system during a period of global instability. The federal quota system had restricted the number of people from outside Western Europe eligible to settle in the United States.²²

Passed during the height of the Cold War, it abolished the discriminatory national-origins quota system that had governed U.S. immigration since the 1920s. Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, this law replaced the quotas with a preference system prioritizing family reunification and skilled labor.