Roosevelt Administration: Jewish Immigration

In 1882, a clause was added to immigration legal philosophy which stated that anyone deemed "likely to be practice a national charge" (LPC) could be denied admittance; this clause was enacted to cumber the entrance of impoverished immigrants who could become dependent upon public assistance. In 1917, the Alien Act was passed, specifying that unaccompanied children could be admitted into the U.S. only below the discretionary power of the Secretary of Labor. The most important revisions to the immigration laws, however, were passed in 1921 and 1924, imposing an annual quota on the number of persons of all(prenominal) nationality who could enter the U.S., based upon its proportional representation in the U.S. universe of discourse in 1920. The overall effect of these two Acts was to restrict immigration of southern and eastern Europeans, especially Jews (Baumel, 1990, pp. 10-11).

As the Depression worse in 1930, many in the organization became increasingly relate that immigrants would overwhelm the U.S. job market, increasing the number of persons who required public assistance. Consequently, President Herbert Hoover demanded that the LPC clause be strictly understand by American consuls abroad; this action usurped the role of copulation to a certain extent in setting immigration policy, since it effectively restricted immigration policy outside of the rule legislative process. This policy was enforced until 1937 and resulted in quotas which did not come close to being filled during these yea

Burns, J. M. (1970). Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom 1940-1945. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Roosevelt's nonaction was actually support by many of the Jewish members of his administration. Jewish lawyers made up a large portion of the federal bureaucracy, largely because they were denied profession by most of the more prominent eastern law firms. They did not, however, represent a bloc of influence in the government; achieving their positions as a result of personal ambition and accomplishment, they did not consider themselves an integral part of the larger Jewish union in the United States. Consequently, they tended to support administration policies without regard to Jewish interests worldwide.

A good example of this was Secretary Morganthau. Morganthau had little or no interest in Jewish issues and virtually neglected the problem of Jewish refugees until 1943, when he discovered that Germany had embarked on an liquidation policy and that the State Department was blocking the entrance of refugees and suppressing intelligence information of the Nazi policy. It was only then that Morganthau became the champion of the Jewish refugees in the administration (Feingold, 1983, pp. 432, 443).

Roosevelt actually proposed the first attempt to help the refugees in 1938, but then let the effort fade away. When Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Roosevelt recognized that the Jewish refugee problem would expand tremendously. In frame in of 1938, he proposed holding a conference on the refugee problem, ask thirty European and Latin American countries to send delegates. He hoped that these countries would offer to grant the refugees sanctuary, although Secretary of State Cordell Hull ulterior said that Roosevelt really wished to preempt calls for the liberalization of U.S. immigration laws. In fact, most of the other countries hoped that the U.S. would offer sanctuary to the refugees and enthusiasm waned when the U.S. delegates stalled on this at the conference in Jul
Ordercustompaper.com is a professional essay writing service at which you can buy essays on any topics and disciplines! All custom essays are written by professional writers!