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WHY DID CONGRESS CHANGE THE LAW IN 1965? |
There are two great issues regarding immigration:
1. How many immigrants should be admitted each year?
2. Who should get the immigration slots?
In 1965, Congress made clear that the first question of numbers was settled -- that immigration levels should not increase.
The 1925 immigration law had allocated immigration slots according to national origin. The number of each nationality was determined by that nationality's proportion of the U.S. population. Thus, only a tiny percentage of slots went to any Asian nation.
Congress, in the spirit of the Civil Rights Act of the time, wanted to make sure there was no racial bias in the immigration system. It eliminated overt discrimination based on national origin.
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