History test: America’s borders haven’t been open since 1864
Published Dominion Post, Jul. 27, 2025. Reprinted with permission.
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!— Emma Lazarus, 1883
Except for indigenous peoples and those who arrived here on slave ships, we are a nation of immigrants. It’s a cliche because it’s true. America is the most diverse country in the world and that diversity is embedded in our national identity. From Mardi Gras, to St. Patrick’s Day, to Thanksgiving and other festivities, all of these came to us by cultures seeking the American Dream. Who among us does not enjoy an evening of Chinese food, adventure into the tastes of Thai or Indian spices, ethnic pastries or have a favorite Italian recipe or restaurant?
Emma Lazarus’ poem, originally written to raise funds for the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, was added to the Statue in 1903. Her words seem incongruous today, when our lives are filled with news of unidentifiable masked men abducting immigrants (and citizens) for detention and deportation without due process.
Immigration to the United States was not always so difficult to achieve, but immigrants have always endured stigma. Surnames were changed to assimilate intentionally or by error upon arrival.
We believe it’s time to revisit how U.S. immigration policy has evolved over the decades.
The true story of immigration and America is a tug of war between the desire to expand and develop a nation and the political power of entrepreneurs, robber barons and industrialists who have driven immigration law. Today’s rhetoric of “open borders” are false claims, not an accurate representation of laws since 1864.
The Immigration Law of 1864 provided that labor contracts made by immigrants were enforceable in U.S. Courts. With the Industrial Revolution, coal companies actively recruited young men and their families from Italy, Austria and Poland for their mining experience. As railroads were linking the nation from the Atlantic to the Pacific, that required laborers. The loss of slave labor left a void for agriculture. Some immigrants entered indentured servant contracts to cover the cost of their passage and this law provided grounds to enforce those contracts.
The Immigration Act of 1882 was the first attempt at broad federal oversight. A tax of 50 cents per passenger was assessed to fund regulation and screening of arriving passengers. Anyone deemed a convict, lunatic, idiot or unable to care for themself without becoming a public charge could be denied entry.
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 suspended immigration of Chinese laborers and paved the way for additional laws that allowed for permanent deportation. The 1888 Scott Act prohibited lawful resident Chinese nationals from reentering the United States if they left American borders. In 1892, the Scott Act was expanded to exclude Chinese immigration for 10 more years.
The 1917 Immigration Act created an “Asiatic barred zone” that included India, Southeast Asia, and most of the Middle East. Exemptions could be granted only to certain professionals, government officers and students.
The 1921 Emergency Quota Act set quotas based on nationality and limited the number of each nationality permitted to immigrate.
The 1924 National Origins Quota (The Johnson-Reed Act) was crafted to set quotas to 2% of the proportion of that nationality on the 1890 census, 34-year-old data that has long been deemed incomplete and inaccurate by historians due to destruction by fire in 1921 and other mishandling of the records. This law specifically targeted southern and eastern Europeans, the same groups that had been recruited and exploited by coal and steel barons.
Next month, we will continue our review of immigration policies since World War II.
Regardless of the period we’ve covered so far, the truth of U.S. immigration policies makes us question whether Emma Lazarus’ words described a country welcoming to all, or just an aspiration. In fact, exclusion — by race, religion, nationality, socioeconomic status — has always been part of the American story. However, our past — if we choose to learn from it — could lead us to change. Let’s consider writing a better American story, one that lives up to Emma Lazarus’ inspiring words on our nation’s monument to Liberty.