1898-1930
During 1898 through 1930, many acts were in put place to limit the amount of immigrants coming into the United States at the time. The United States was starting to realize there were too many immigrants entering America and decided they need to do something about it. One of the first acts created was the Gentlemen's Agreement(1907). The agreement was between America and Japan; they agreed to stop allowing citizens to immigrate into America. This was during Theodore Roosevelt's presidency, where he agreed to prohibit any discrimination that was towards or against Japanese immigrants in the state of California. A second act that was made was the Immigration Act of 1917 which says any immigrants with disabilities, alcoholics, criminals, diseases, or idiots, etc. were not allowed to enter the United States. In order to immigrate into America you must pass a literacy tests, but these literacy tests were ridiculously made. The average educated white male during that time would not be able to pass the literacy test. A third act was the Immigration act of 1921 which was further restriction of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, small numbers of Americans and no Asians or Middle Easterners. This act dramatically changed the amount of immigrants entering the United States. On the 1890 census, only 2% of people from each country were allowed into America. On top of the acts that were made, many immigrants were treated poorly when entering through Ellis Island, New York. 1898 through 1930 was a difficult time for immigrants coming into America.