Immigration Act of 1924

The Immigration Act of 1924, also known as the Johnson-Reed Act after its congressional sponsors, is a United States federal law that established a national origins quota system limiting immigration to the United States based on the existing national composition of the American population as recorded in the 1890 census. The quotas sharply favored immigration from Northern and Western Europe while severely restricting arrivals from Southern and Eastern Europe, and the act barred immigration from Asia almost entirely through a barred zone provision aimed particularly at Japan. It set an overall annual immigration ceiling far below pre-World War I levels and created the system of consular visa control still used today, under which prospective immigrants apply for visas at American consulates abroad before travel. The national origins quota system it established remained the basic framework of United States immigration law until it was abolished by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.