The Immigration Act of 1882
The first federal bureaucracy established for the regulation and administration of American immigration policy and procedures was created under the auspices of the Immigration Act of 1882. Signed into law in September of 1882, it restricted certain individuals from entry into the United States and established a head tax for immigrants (of fifty cents) to be paid upon entry. The head tax was increased numerous times until it reached $8 by 1916, and since it was collected to defray the expense of administering the immigration process, through the Department of the Treasury, the government actually profited from the immigration process before the First World War.
The act created federal officials at all ports of entry and entitled them to meet inbound vessels and inspect their passenger manifests and the passengers themselves. It was the decision of the immigration official to allow or deny entry to passengers’ intent on immigrating, and the act provided the terms upon which entry could be denied if, “…found among such passengers any convict, lunatic, idiot, or any person unable to take care of him or herself without becoming a public charge…” Criminals were to be returned to the port whence they came at the expense of the shipper. There was a special allowance for those convicted as a result of political motives.
The Act recognized the United States as being a “haven for those persecuted by foreign tyrants” and allowed them entry (unless they were also an idiot or lunatic) and once the inspection was completed and the head tax collected immigrants were allowed to enter the United States. Obviously the need to have inspectors qualified to make judgments regarding the potential immigrants’ suitability in every American port demanded some structure. They were placed them under the Department of the Treasury, within the Customs Houses and Offices in American ports, which were then political appointee positions often rewarded to supporters and party hacks by the administration in power.
The Immigration Act of 1882 authorized the Immigration Commissioner, who was an official of the US Department of the Treasury, to enter into contracts with the individual states, allowing the states’ to administer immigration within their ports. This remained the official policy of the Department of the Treasury until 1891. Through the 1880s a series of amendments to the Immigration Act were inconsistently followed by the states, which led to the federal government taking over the bureaucratic machinery of immigration in 1891, with the states no longer having any input into immigration policy or procedure.
Throughout the life of the Immigration Act of 1882 the definition of individuals as being unable to provide for themselves was used to exclude entry to individuals based on the judgement of the officials inspecting potential immigrants. Pregnant women, single women, the poor, and those simply deemed undesirable in the eyes of the inspectors were often turned away, at least initially, leading to bribery of the officials. The immigration system was fraught with bribery of officials, by immigrants trying to get in, and by other interests trying to keep them out. This was a period when the civil service system in the United States was often corrupt, since many positions were awarded on political rather than professional merit.