Making change for Katrina

Paralleling some immigration concerns of today, in the early 1900s Congress' primary interest in immigration was to protect American workers and wages. In 1903, Congress transferred the Bureau of Immigration to the newly created (now-defunct) Department of Commerce and Labor. After World War I, Congress attempted to stem the flow of all forms of immigration including spouse immigration, by passing a law in 1921 and the Immigration Act of 1924 limiting the number of newcomers by assigning a quota to each nationality based upon its representation in previous U.S. Census figures. Each year, the U.S. State Department issued a limited number of visas; only those immigrants who could present valid visas were permitted entry.