The Flood Gates Opened In 1965

Our downward spiral into the hell known as illegal immigration began, in earnest, with the Immigration and Nationality Act Of 1965. Also known as the Hart-Celler Act, it abolished the national origin quotas which had been in place since the Immigration Act of 1924. Prior to 1965, our Congress had passed 21 different immigration related acts, but none of them opened the floodgates as efficiently as this one.

In the past, our country's immigration acts had always worked to restrict the number of immigrants who could enter our borders. Some of them, like the Immigration Act of 1917 barred specific people, like those from eastern Asia and the Pacific Islands. It even barred idiots, epileptics, and those people aged 16 or older who were illiterate.

The Immigration Act of 1924 set quotas on the number of people who could enter our country legally. These quotas restricted the number of immigrants who could enter our country to 2% of the population from that country who were already in the United States. This act also excluded Asians entirely, and was more restrictive of those coming from southern and eastern Europe, eliminating many Catholics and Jews from migrating. There was, however, no limit to those entering from Latin America. I suppose that's because we didn't have a great number of people crossing our southern border at the time.

New York Representative Emanuel Celler was opposed to the national origin quotes and staunchly opposed the measure. Forty-one years later he proposed the Hart-Celler Act, which took the national origin restrictions out of consideration, and on October 3rd, 1965 with staunch support from Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy, the quotas set by the Immigration Act of 1924 were abolished when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 into law.

During debate on the Senate floor, Senator Kennedy told the American people that our cities would not be flooded with immigrants and that the ethnic mix of our society would not be upset. The Hart-Celler Act created a limit of 20,000 visas allowed per country with an annual limit of 170,000 visas. These visas were on a first-come, first-served basis. The Hart-Celler Act did not place a limit on family reunification visas, and chain immigration became a huge problem, which resulted in immigrants flooding our cities and a complete change in the ethic mix of our society.

While the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 opened the floodgates, subsequent bills have done even more damage, like the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.

During the debate of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, Senator Kennedy argued that the amnesty provided by the act would give citizenship to no more than 1.3 million illegal immigrants, the borders would be secured, and Congress would never again bring forward another amnesty bill. After the bill was signed into law on November 6, 1986 by President Ronald Reagan, 2.7 million illegal immigrants were given amnesty, the border was never secured, and, as you know by now, we have been fighting yet another amnesty bill on the Senate floor.

So the next time you hear Edward Kennedy bellowing his re-assurances about immigration reform from the floor of the United States Senate, please remember, we wouldn't be facing these immigration reform issues if he and the rest of Congress had just done the job correctly at least once in the past 83 years.

Read more about the history of Immigration reform in our country:

Wikipedia: List of United States Immigration Acts
The 1965 Immigration Act: Anatomy of a Disaster
Wikipedia: Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965

Crossposted at Slobokan's Soapbox at Townhall

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