Immigration Act of 1965
1965
Problem addressed.
he 1965 Immigration Act abolished the national-origin quota system that had been executed in the United States since the Immigration Act of 1924. From 1924 to 1965, the U.S. government limited the number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already living in the U.S. in 1890. The Immigration Act of 1924 prohibited immigration from Asia, especially for East Asians and Asian Indians; it also restricted the numbers of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. As a result, immigrants during this period were mainly Europeans from countries such as Ireland, England, and Germany.
Whom the law intended to help.
The new system eliminated the various nationality criteria, supposedly putting people of all nations on an equal footing for immigration to the United States. The new legislation ; technically, amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952) substituted a system based primarily on family reunification and needed skills.
Main Reason
The main reason the Immigration Act was the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement was to rid America of racial/ethnic discrimination. Two other bills, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Johnson signed for the same reason. The Immigration Act was therefore a corrective measure instituted to atone for past history of discrimination in immigration.