US Government Immigration Act or National Origins Act

In reaction to post WWI communist witch hunts in the US, rising tides of nativism, and the economic problems of the early 1920s, the US limits the annual number of immigrants from any one country to 2% of the number from that country already living in the US. The House Judiciary Committee in the early 1920s had heard testimony that certain races were “inferior.” It is aimed at limiting admission of immigrants from Asia, south and eastern European. Jews are particularly effected by the new restrictions, causing many to go seek refuge elsewhere including Canada, south American, South Africa, and Palestine.