What Did We Think of Them?
Not everyone welcomed the immigrants. People who wanted immigration limited or even banned were called nativists. Organizations such as The Workingman's Party of California were created to stop or limit immigration, as this organization was created to stop Chinese immigration. Another organization, The American Protective Association, was created to stop Catholics from coming into the U. S. Even some former immigrants, who later became rich and powerful, opposed immigration even after that is what made their lives so prosporous. Things were not always this way. When immigrants first started coming to the United States around 1820, they could come and stay regardless of ethnicity, health record, or physical attributes. Not soon after that, laws and quotas were being passed to stop or limit immigration, which must have been devastating for people wishing to come to the U. S. Laws such as the Chinese Exclusion Act prevented Chinese immigration and it also prevent Chinese who were already in the United States from becoming citizens. The Emergency Quota Act actually only let three percent of the total number of people in a single ethnic group be admitted to the U. S. in a single year. This severly limited immigration from southern and eastern Europe.