Emergency Quota Act

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the United States, the Emergency Quota Act (ch. 8, 42 Stat. 5, also known as the Johnson Quota Act) of May 19, 1921 was an immigration quota that limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 3% of the number of persons from that country living in the United States in 1910, according to United States Census figures. This totaled about 357,802 immigrants. Of that number just over half was allocated for northern and western Europeans, and the remainder for eastern and southern Europeans, a 75% reduction from prior years. Professionals were allowed in despite their origins. The act was passed in a time of swelling isolationism following World War I.

[edit] Debates

“The United States of America, a nation great in all things, is ours today. To whom will it belong tomorrow? . . . The United States is our land. If it was not the land of our fathers, at least it may be, and it should be, the land of our children. We intend to maintain it so. The day of unalloyed welcome to all people, the day of indiscriminate acceptance of all races, has definitely ended.” —Representative Albert W. Johnson

-The census that was used was that of 1890 not 1910 and the number came out to 156,000.^{[citation needed]}