Immigration restrictions climaxed a wartime cascade of anti-foreign statutes

Evidence

The general terms of the great immigration restriction laws of the early twenties stare up at us from the pages of every textbook in American history. We realize that these measures brought to culmination a legislative trend extending back to the 1880’s. It is not so obvious perhaps that they belonged equally to a cascade of anti-foreign statutes that began during the war. From the passage of the Espionage Act in 1917 through the tribal reaction of the twenties, state and national governments legislated almost ceaselessly against the successive dangers that seemed to arise from America’s foreign population. Immigration restriction marked both the climax and the conclusion of an era of nationalistic legislation. — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 1806

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: A legal-technical limit on federal power steered the Red Scare against foreigners — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 1361; Deportation emerged as a sanction for aliens who resisted wartime assimilation. — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 1497; Asian allies in WWII triggered the dismantling of US national-origin immigration bars — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes…, 470 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Asian allies in WWII triggered the dismantling of US national-origin immigration bars #contradicts (0.75) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 470
• A common enemy war dissolved organized anti-immigrant nativism. #contradicts (0.75) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 79
• The War on Terror created deportable subjects racialized as illegal and criminal #complicates (0.70) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 647
• Nativist intensity collapsed once restriction was legally secured #complicates (0.70) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 1955