05.12.10
St Louis Adult Entertainment: What does it mean to be a ‘nation of immigrants?’
In 1798 a Federalist-controlled Congress, alarmed by the growing support for revolutionary France in their war with England, passed the Alien Act. This raised the citizenship residency requirement to 14 years. It was a blatant attempt Federalists to suppress support for the Democratic-Republicans Party among the immigrants, who favored France. Sound familiar?
In the 1840s, the second great wave of immigration, mostly of Roman Catholic Irish, sparked the first organized anti-foreign movement embodied in the “Know-Nothing” Party. None of their ideas were enacted into law but the stage was set for the next phase of U.S. immigration policy.
This began in the late 19
century when Congress began placing qualitative restrictions on immigration. Convicts, prostitutes, “mental defectives,” and illiterates were barred. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 blocked almost all immigration from that country, after the railroads were built, or course.