The 1924 Immigration Act’s national quotas were driven by scientific racism

Evidence

Scientific racism’s effect on immigration policy culminated in strict national origin quotas in the 1924 Immigration Act, which severely curbed immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe, as well as Asia, for the next forty years. In congressional debates preceding passage of the law, government reports demonstrated the anti-Semitic motives behind restrictions on Eastern European immigrants. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 243

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The 1921 quota law locked in racial composition as nationality limits — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 1878; By 1924 racial restrictionism had fully displaced economic arguments for restriction — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 1911