National Origins Act of 1924 (U.S.)

The 1924 Immigration Act (National Origins Act or the Johnson-Reed Act) was the crowning achievement of nativists seeking to restrict immigration in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. Nativists used a variety of scare tactics including health and disability, race, and assimilability to argue for limiting immigration.

Fueled by the eugenics movement and the belief that selective breeding could improve the population, and alarmed over the increasing number of immigrants originating from southern and eastern Europe (considered of racially inferior stock), intellectuals and the power elite began calling for immigration restrictions. For example, T.V. Powderly, the Commissioner-General of Immigration, warned in 1902 that immigration was a menace to the national health and defended the 1891 immigration law which barred certain groups including those suffering from loathsome or dangerous contagious diseases from entering the country. Further he linked certain communicable...