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Immigration Policy The immigration policy has always been a controversial issue in the United States even though we are a “nation of immigrants.” Even though there was tension by nativist opposition, the “golden door” access to America’s vast continental frontier prevailed until the Immigration Act of 1875. The nativist then got their way in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1884, where scientific racism provided a justification for the restriction of eastern and southern Europeans as well as Asian immigration. These acts were in effect for the U.S. policy regarding immigration until the mid-20th Century. In 1952 the Immigration and Nationality Act was passed which transformed the immigration practices into a system of national quotas based on each group’s percentage of the 1920 census, with the exception of refugees from a communist state. In 1965 while the progressive civil rights movement was occurring, the Immigration and Nationality Act set the tone for contemporary immigration laws by eliminating the national origins system to favor categories like family reunification, personal qualifications and the order of applications received. During the 1970’s most of the immigrations were coming from Asia and Latin Am