By William Warby (originally posted to Flickr as Statue of Liberty) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

I would like to provide a brief historical summary of immigration law in the United States. There must be not only a reform in immigration law, but in addition there must be a fundamental change in the principles motivating the law. Our current law is essentially a quota system. It is a quota system that bases the choosing of legal immigrants based on nationality.  In an example of extreme understatement the authors of Overview of INS History say “Severely restricted immigration often results [in] increased illegal immigration.” The quota system that either by design or accident keeps wages of of current employees artificially high is at the root of all of our immigration problems. Until we change the quota system no reform will “fix” the problem. We will be debating “illegal immigrants” and the associated problems again in several years unless we fundamentally change our immigration law.

While not particularly old, the history of immigration law (1)  is somewhat complex and telling. It wasn’t until 1875 that the Supreme Court declared regulation of immigration a federal issue. You don’t need to much imagination to determine what the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was designed to do. Cheap (Chinese) labor was to be excluded from US shores. Through additional legislation several years later US efforts at managing immigration were funded through a $.50 head tax. It was not until 1909 the immigration service received an annual appropriation.

Despite the “Great Wave” of immigration that occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, basic US policy was to encourage citizenship. There was a grass roots Americanization movement. The Naturalization Service prepared and sponsored the Education for Citizenship program and distributed textbooks to public schools offering citizenship education classes. During the early years of the 20th century government bureaucracy and control grew (literacy tests, border crossing cards) as US citizens began to change their historically open attitude toward immigration.

The national origins quota system was established by the Immigration Acts  of 1921 and 1924. The Immigration Act of 1921 limited immigrants to 3% of each nationality present in the US in 1910. In 1924 the quotas were changed to 2% of each nationality based on numbers in US in 1890. The quotas were based on surnames (many of which were anglicized at Ellis Island) and not the census figures. 82% of all immigrants allowed in the country came from western and northern Europe, 16% from southern and eastern Europe, 2% from the rest of the world. (A Brief Timeline on US Immigration and Naturalization). Immigration policy was reformed in 1952 with the removal of all racial barriers to immigration and naturalization. However, the quota system was maintained.

In 1965 the 1952 law was amended. Known as the Hart-Celler Act this reform was an attempt to abolished the national origins quotas. According to Mae N. Ngai, “The proposal had broad support, but the Kennedy administration pressured Senator Hart to sponsor the bill that created our current system instead — allocating visas in equal number to all countries, a principle inspired by the civil-rights-era ethos of formal equality. And it has been at the root of our “illegal immigration problem” ever since.” The quota system was maintained in essence.

Today, “Section 201 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) sets an annual minimum family-sponsored preference limit of 226,000.  The worldwide level for annual employment-based preference immigrants is at least 140,000. Section 202 prescribes that the per-country limit for preference immigrants is set at 7% of the total annual family-sponsored and employment-based preference limits, i.e., 25,620. The dependent area limit is set at 2%, or 7,320.” (Visa Bulletin for June 2014). While the country based quota has increased in percentage over the years, at root our immigration law is a quota system. We can debate over immigration reform, president Obama can threaten unilateral action, but until we fundamentally change the foundation of our immigration policy the United States will continue to have problems. We need an immigration policy that at it’s foundation welcomes, encourages, and empowers people who want to come to the US and become productive citizens.

(1) while I have learned this history from several sources I am going to use “Overview of INS History” (A document from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services) as an outline. Much of what is said in subsequent paragraphs is paraphrased from this short history.