Luce–Celler Act

Not to be confused with the Hart–Celler Act of 1965.
Luce–Celler Act
Great Seal of the United States
Citations
Public lawPub. L. 79–483
Statutes at Large60 Stat. 416
Legislative history
US President Harry Truman signing into law the Luce–Celler Act in 1946[1]

The Luce–Celler Act of 1946, Pub. L. No. 79-483, 60 Stat. 416, is an Act of the United States Congress which provided a quota of 100 Filipinos[2] and 100 Indians from Asia to immigrate to the United States per year,[3] which for the first time allowed these people to naturalize as American citizens.[4][5] Upon becoming citizens, these new Americans could own property under their names and even petition for their immediate family members from abroad.[6]

The Act was proposed by Republican Clare Boothe Luce and Democrat Emanuel Celler in 1943 and signed into law by US President Harry S. Truman on July 2, 1946, two days before the Philippines became independent with the signing of the Treaty of Manila on July 4, 1946. Because of the imminent independence of the Philippines, Filipinos would have been barred from immigrating without the Act.[7]

Prior to 1946, Indian nationals were not eligible to naturalize in the United States.[8][9] They were also not allowed to obtain any form of permanent residency, a legal status introduced later under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.

See also

References

  1. ^ "PBS - Roots in the Sand - the Archives". PBS.
  2. ^ Bayor, Ronald (2011). Multicultural America: An Encyclopedia of the Newest Americans. ABC-CLIO. p. 714. ISBN 978-0-313-35786-2. Retrieved 7 February 2011.
  3. ^ Bayor, Ronald (2011). Multicultural America: An Encyclopedia of the Newest Americans. ABC-CLIO. p. 969. ISBN 978-0-313-35786-2. Retrieved 7 February 2011.
  4. ^ "The US has come a long way since its first, highly restrictive naturalization law". Public Radio International. July 4, 2016. Retrieved 2020-07-31.
  5. ^ Okihiro, Gary Y. (2005). The Columbia Guide to Asian American History. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-231-11511-7. Retrieved 7 February 2011.
  6. ^ Mabalon, Dawn B.; Rico Reyes (2008). Filipinos in Stockton. Arcadia Publishing. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-7385-5624-6. Retrieved 7 February 2012.
  7. ^ Trinh Võ, Linda (2004). Mobilizing an Asian American community. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. pp. 20–21. ISBN 978-1-59213-262-1. Retrieved 7 February 2012. The Philippines was granted independence in 1946, and Filipinos, then barred from immigration along with individuals from other countries in the "Eastern Hemisphere," were allotted 100 immigration slots (Yu 1980).
  8. ^ See United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind; "In the Matter of K". Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). Casetext.com. May 26, 1945. Retrieved 2019-10-12.
  9. ^ Huping Ling; Allan W. Austin (17 March 2015). Asian American History and Culture: An Encyclopedia: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. p. 1111. ISBN 978-1-317-47644-3.
    Kathryn Gin Lum; Paul Harvey (1 March 2018). The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Race in American History. Oxford University Press. p. 449. ISBN 978-0-19-022118-8.
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