In 1924, Congress cut the number of immigrants allowed to settle in the United States for good by about 80%. It fixed the new number in law. The cut held for 41 years, and the four decades that followed produced the largest expansion of the American middle class in the country's history.
A modern immigration law could do the same thing. Its core is the feature that worked: a deep, durable cut in permanent settlement, written into law. It would drop the 1924 method of choosing who fills the remaining slots, a quota pegged to old census counts, and select instead for what that formula was a crude stand-in for, whether an immigrant can assimilate.
How a Person Becomes American
A person becomes an American in three stages: a temporary visa, then a green card, then citizenship. Each stage does one thing, and only the middle one controls how many people settle in the country for good.
The three stages
How a person becomes American
Only the middle stage, the green card, sets how many people join the country for good each year. That is the stage the 1924 Act cut by about 80%.
Temporary visa
- -Enter and stay for a fixed period
- -Student, temporary worker, or tourist
- -Expires - no right to stay for good
Green card
- -Permanent residence: live and work for life
- -Cannot vote
- -Sets how many people settle each year
Citizenship
- -After several years as a permanent resident
- -English and civics test, then an oath
- -Carries the right to vote
Sources: USCIS, "The Colorful History of the Green Card" (permanent-resident card dates to 1946); USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 12 (naturalization residence period, English and civics test, oath of allegiance).
The green card is the stage that matters for the numbers. It grants permanent residence: the holder can live and work in the country for life but cannot vote. The plastic card dates to 1946 and is named for its color, but the idea behind it is as old as immigration law.[1] When the 1924 Act cut immigration, it cut this stage. It reduced how many people were allowed to come and stay for good, and left tourists and temporary workers largely alone.
What 1917 and 1924 Did
The restriction that reshaped the country came in two laws, seven years apart.
The Immigration Act of 1917 came first. It required adult immigrants to read, in any language, and it barred immigration from most of Asia. Congress passed it over President Wilson's veto.[2]
The Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 followed. It capped permanent admissions at about 165,000 a year, roughly 80% below the 1907 peak of 1.29 million.[3] It required immigrants to be approved by a U.S. consul abroad before boarding a ship, ending the practice of arriving at Ellis Island and hoping to be admitted. The same year, Congress created the Border Patrol.[4]
The cut applied to permanent settlement, the green card of its day. Tourists and temporary workers were largely untouched.
The foreign-born share of the population fell from 14.7% in 1910 to 4.7% by 1970.[5] Across those decades wages for American workers rose, homeownership expanded, and the middle class grew to its largest share of the population in the country's history.
The 1924 law chose immigrants with a formula. It pegged each country's quota to how many people of that nationality the census already counted in the United States. A modern law would not copy that arithmetic. It would keep the deep cut in permanent admissions, held in place by federal law, and choose the people who fill it directly: for cultural compatibility and ease of assimilation, with priority for Europe and the Americas, and a door elsewhere open only to those with a skill almost no American has.
The Laws That Reversed It
Two later laws undid what 1924 built.
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the Hart-Celler Act, ended the national-origins system and rebuilt immigration around family sponsorship.[10] It reopened the door that 1924 had narrowed. Admissions rose, slowly at first.
The Immigration Act of 1990 finished the reversal. It raised the annual ceiling on legal immigration from 270,000 to 675,000, created the H-1B visa, and created the Diversity Visa lottery.[11] Where 1924 cut the numbers and fixed them in law, 1990 tripled them.
Between them, the 1965 and 1990 laws raised admissions as far as 1917 and 1924 had cut them. The foreign-born share climbed from 4.7% in 1970 to 15.8% in 2025, above the 1910 peak the 1924 Act was written to bring down.[5][9]
A modern law would cut the annual number back to roughly where 1924 set it, and write it down so it holds.
1924, Today, and a Modern Act
Since 2025 the Trump administration has moved much of the way there by executive action, without a new law. The table sets the 1924 Act beside where the numbers stand today and beside what a permanent law would write down.
| 1924 Johnson-Reed | Where we are now | A modern act | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How many settle permanently | Cut ~80%, to about 165,000 a year | Green cards ran 1.36 million in 2024, the highest since 1991; immigrant-visa issuance has since fallen about 21% | Cut ~80%, to about 250,000 a year |
| Where the number lives | Written into law | Set by executive action | Written into law |
| How immigrants are chosen | By a quota pegged to census counts | Country travel bans and tighter vetting | By assimilation and skill; priority for Europe and the Americas |
| Family | Restricted | Chain migration slowed, not yet capped | Spouses and minor children only |
| Skilled workers | Limited | H-1B curbed by a six-figure fee and wage rules | Under 10,000, top pay only |
| Enforcement | Approval at consulates abroad | Border crossings down sharply, interior enforcement up | Mandatory E-Verify |
| How long it lasts | 41 years | In force since 2025, by executive order | Fixed in law, reviewed on a set schedule |
The executive cuts are real, and they hold as long as the administration keeps them. The ideal next step is to write the same numbers into law, as 1924 did, so a future president cannot lift them on the first day.
Then Leave It Alone
The 1924 Act worked partly because Congress left it alone. It set a number and held it for four decades. In that time the immigrants already in the country, Irish, Italian, Polish, and Jewish, became simply American.
A modern law would face the same task with the roughly 51 million foreign-born residents in the country today.[9] The goal is a controlled number, well above zero, low enough that the people who come can assimilate and steady enough that families and employers can plan around it.
The 1965 and 1990 laws raised the annual number away from that level, and Congress can lower it again and write it into law, as it did in 1924.
Recommendations
A modern Johnson-Reed would keep the deep cut, update how immigrants are chosen, and write both into law.
- Cap green cards at about 250,000 a year, down from roughly 1.1 million now.[6] That is about 80% lower, the same proportion the 1924 Act cut, and Congress would set it so no future president could quietly raise it.
- Limit family green cards to spouses and minor children. A citizen could bring a husband, wife, or young child. The chains that pull in adult siblings, parents, and grown children over time would close.
- Replace the H-1B with a small exceptional-talent visa, capped under 10,000 a year and reserved for workers paid at the top of the American wage scale for their field. The H-1B admits about 85,000 new workers a year, with total approvals of 399,000 in 2024, most certified below the local going wage.[7]
- End the Diversity Visa lottery, which awards about 55,000 green cards a year by random draw, with no skill, education, job-offer, or family requirement.[8]
- Choose the immigrants who remain for cultural compatibility and ease of assimilation, with priority for Europe and the Americas and a best-in-world skill bar for arrivals from elsewhere. Require English and civics to naturalize.
- Require E-Verify from every employer, so the cap holds and workers cannot enter and take jobs illegally alongside it.
- Fix the numbers in law and have Congress review them on a set schedule, rather than leaving them to an executive order the next president can reverse.
Sources
- USCIS, "The Colorful History of the Green Card" - the permanent-resident card dates to 1946 and is named for its color; permanent residence is the step between a temporary visa and citizenship
- Immigration History Research Center, The 1917 Immigration Act (Barred Zone Act) - literacy test, Asiatic Barred Zone, passed over President Wilson's veto
- U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, The Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act) - the quota cut immigration roughly 80%; permanent quota ceiling around 150,000-165,000
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection, "1924: Border Patrol Established" - the 1924 Act's consular-visa system and the creation of the U.S. Border Patrol
- U.S. Census Bureau, Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-Born Population: 1850-2000 - foreign-born share 14.7% (1910) to 4.7% (1970)
- DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics, Yearbook of Immigration Statistics (lawful permanent residents) - roughly 1.1 million green cards issued annually
- Pew Research Center, What we know about the U.S. H-1B visa program - 85,000 cap on new visas; total approvals reached 399,000 in 2024
- U.S. Department of State, Diversity Visa Program - roughly 55,000 immigrant visas a year, awarded by lottery
- Migration Policy Institute, U.S. Immigrant Population Over Time - roughly 51 million foreign-born residents, about 15.8% of the population
- Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (Hart-Celler Act), Public Law 89-236, 79 Stat. 911 - ended the national-origins quota system and shifted immigration to family sponsorship
- Immigration Act of 1990, Public Law 101-649, 104 Stat. 4978 - raised the annual immigration ceiling from 270,000 to 675,000 and created the H-1B visa and the Diversity Visa lottery