1965 Immigration and Nationality Act

(Hart-Cellar Act)

Friday, January 01, 1965

Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, this Act abolished the previous national origin quota systems of the 1920s with a visa preference system that focused on immigrant’s skills and family relationships with U.S. citizens and/or residents. This Act established an annual cap of allowing 20,000 immigrants to come to the United States for all countries, placing numerical limits on Western hemisphere countries for the first time. At the same time, the passage of this Act also increased the opportunity for individuals to migrate to the United States from Asia, Central America and Mexico, Africa, the Middle East, and other parts of Europe.