arration
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Beginning in the 1890s, Italians, Hungarians, Russians, and Eastern
European Jews, people from southern and eastern Europe, came, known as
the new immigrants.
Most of these 23.5 million newcomers settled into
tenements in New York City.
Many Americans believed that immigrants threatened the nation's unity.
Heavy immigration during the nineteenth century resulted in further
restrictive measures.
Chinese were barred from entering.
Cheap labor was halted to lessen
competition to American laborers. Polygamists, the diseased and
disabled, and anarchists were forbidden entry to the US. The Gentlemen's
Agreement, prevented Japanese laborers from immigrating.
Illiterate adult aliens and Asians were barred. There was to be an
inspection of immigrations, a medical examination, and the return of
unlawful immigrants, all of which would be done at Ellis Island in three
to four hours.
Ellis Island, which operated from 1892 to 1954, has been a symbol of
immigration to the American people, with over twelve million immigrants
that entered the US through the island. 5,000 immigrants were inspected
on Ellis Island during its peak years.
The medical examination in the Registry Room was the first test.
Officials checked them for physical or mental disabilities, using a
piece of chalk on the immigrant's coat to mark those suspected.
Those marked would be examined again and be given treatment. Those with severe
disabilities would be sent back.
The second process was the legal process. After waiting on the long line
of benches for his or her name to be called, the immigrant would step up
to the legal inspector's desk where they were questioned.
In 1924 Congress passed the National Origins Act limiting immigration
and imposing national origins quotas. Because of the activating of the
national origins and the Great Depression, immigration to the US dropped
sharply.
WWII led to an easing of immigration laws. The War Brides Act, admitted
the foreign born wives and children of US servicemen. As China had been
an ally during the war, the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed.
In 1948, the Displaced Persons Act became law, which admitted refugees,
mostly from central and eastern Europe. Thousands of refugees also came
from revolutions in Hungary and Cuba.
In 1952 Congress passed the McCarran Walter Act allowing small numbers
of Asian immigrants to enter, thus removing all national and racial
barriers to naturalization.
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