Immigration Act of 1924

A U.S. law that imposed national-origin quotas on immigration and barred entry by people ineligible for citizenship, including immigrants from Asia.

National Origins Formula: A U.S. quota system that assigned immigration slots according to national origins and census figures. It translated the law’s national-origin principle into country-specific admission limits.
Johnson–Reed Act: The common name for the Immigration Act of 1924, after its congressional sponsors. The act’s familiar alternate name links it to its legislative authors.
Immigration from Japan to the United States: The movement of people from Japan to the United States across successive periods of migration and restriction. The act closed most remaining routes for Japanese immigration and ended the Gentlemen’s Agreement framework.
Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907: An informal U.S.–Japanese arrangement that restricted Japanese labor migration without a general statutory ban. The 1924 act replaced this negotiated restriction with a categorical exclusion of Japanese immigrants.
Emergency Quota Act: A 1921 U.S. law that first imposed numerical limits on immigration by nationality. It established the quota approach that the 1924 act made permanent and more restrictive.
Albert Johnson: A U.S. representative from Washington who chaired the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization. As a principal sponsor, he helped steer restrictive immigration legislation through Congress.
Immigration from Italy to the United States: The movement of people from Italy to the United States, especially during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The quota system sharply reduced immigration from Italy compared with earlier migration levels.
Immigration Act of 1790: A U.S. law that limited naturalization to free white persons while setting few federal rules for immigration. It shows the earlier citizenship rule later used to determine who the 1924 act barred from entry.
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952: A U.S. immigration law that retained national-origin quotas while revising other admission and naturalization rules. It preserved the quota framework after the 1924 act but modified its provisions.
David Reed: A U.S. senator from Pennsylvania who sponsored the 1924 immigration bill in the Senate. His sponsorship gave the quota measure its Senate counterpart to Johnson’s House bill.

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