Immigration Act Of 1965 Essay

In the midst of the Cold War and the civil rights movement, an immigration act was passed that would greatly impact the future of America. On October 3, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 on Liberty Island. Also known as the Hart-Cellar Act, it changed the preference system in the United States’ immigration policy to make it more fair for immigrants of all origins. The idea for the act was made by President John F. Kennedy, but he was assassinated before he was able to pass the bill. As a result, Johnson was adamant about the need for the act and worked with Congress to get it passed. At the time, the Immigration Act of 1965 had simple intentions, which did not include large consequences. But,

First of all, the act made it so that “the immigration pool and the quotas of quota areas shall terminate [by] June 30, 1968” (“Immigration Act (1965),” par. 8). That allowed the quota based on national origins to “phase out” during a “two-and-one-half year transition period” between the old and new policies (Keely 159). But the new system did not completely eliminate policy based on national origin. Part of the new law included “an annual ceiling of 120,000 visas” on natives of the Western Hemisphere, which would be the first limit of its kind in American history (Keely 159). This limit was included to ensure that immigrants from countries other than Europe would be able to enter the United States. The immigration act included a clearly-line out preference system that would decide which immigrants would be rewarded visas first. The preference and percent of visas allotted is as follows: first was unmarried sons and daughters of US citizens (20%), then a spouse and unmarried sons and daughters of an alien lawfully permitted for permanent residence (20%), then members of professions and scientists and artists of exceptional ability (10%), then married sons and daughters of US residents (10%), then brothers and sisters of US citizens (24%), then skilled and unskilled workers in occupations in which labor is in short supply (10%), then refugees to whom conditional entry or adjustment of status may be granted (6%), and then other applicants (“Immigration Act (1965),” par. 16-24). This order of preference put the most emphasis on the immigrant’s skills and relationship to family who already lived in the United