Discuss the U.S. policies on immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries.

What will be an ideal response?

Beginning in 1875, the first federal laws limiting immigration were enacted to bar convicts and prostitutes. Over the years, other laws excluded those having “physical, mental, and moral defects”; those who advocated “subversive doctrines”; and those who had “economic disqualifications” or were illiterate. Beginning in 1921, the U.S. Congress established country quotas based on the origins of the U.S. population using 1910 census data to prevent major changes in the country’s racial and ethnic makeup.