When did we close our borders

[serryjw]

and official immigration with country quotos start?

[Jersey Devil]

1. 1935 (nt)

ntn

[LSparkle]

2. I heard recently that it was within the last hundred years

so all the immigrants who came through Ellis Island in the "good old days" didn't NEED paperwork or permission -- they just showed up. There was no such thing as "illegal" immigration when Bill O'Really and Bat Pukecannon's ancestors were streaming into this country.

[serryjw]

3. WHY 1935?

yes, our grandparents JUST showed up. We were a different country then.

[greenbriar]

8. DEPRESSION caused this

and we are going to be in a new depression

[Bobbie47]

4. link talks about this

http://www.uscitizenship.info/ins-usimmigration-insoverview.html

I was up there looking around last night.

[serryjw]

6. WOW! Thanks for link

n/t

[Bobbie47]

9. Your welcome, glad I could help n/t

[Breeze54]

5. 1875 !! -- great resource here. -->

"Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-born Population of the United States: 1850-1990"
http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0029/twps0029.html

See also:

http://www.cis.org/topics/history.html

History

Click here for publications on this topic

Immigration has played an important role in American history, and the United States continues to have the most open immigration policy in the world. Before the era of rapid communications and transportation, America encouraged relatively open immigration to settle its empty lands. After certain states passed immigration laws following the Civil War, the Supreme Court in 1875 declared the regulation of immigration a federal responsibility. The Immigration Service was established in 1891 to deal with the big increase in immigration which started in 1880.

The outbreak of World War I reduced immigration from Europe, but mass immigration resumed upon the war's conclusion, and Congress responded with a new immigration policy: the national-origins quota system, passed in 1921 and revised in 1924. Immigration was limited by assigning each nationality a quota based on its representation in past U.S. census figures.
Also in 1924, Congress created the U.S. Border Patrol within the Immigration Service.

[EFerrari]

7. What a great question! Thanks!

:hi: