Immigration and Nationality Act of 1976

Thursday, January 01, 1976

Signed into law by President Gerald Ford, this Act amended the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 which resulted in increasing the number of new arrivals from 20,000 to 120,000 for immigrants living in North and South America and up to 170,000 for immigrants living in Europe, Africa, and Asia. In 1978, the Act was amended to cap the yearly worldwide new arrivals to 290,000. This amendment sought to implement a preference system that would be applied to all countries equally, however this Act resulted in capping legal migration from certain countries, particularly Mexico.