In 1958, Senator John F. Kennedy published a slim volume, A Nation of Immigrants, which set out the case for reforming U.S. immigration policies. He argued that the national origins quotas “violated the spirit expressed in the Declaration of Independence that ‘all men are created equal.’” Kennedy did not live to see legislation enacted, but, in the spirit of the civil rights movement, the 1965 Amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act tried to revive the Pennsylvania model of immigration, attempting to put in place a universalistic vision of immigration.

This chapter discusses the new wave of immigration that followed the legislative changes. The 1965 Amendments eliminated the national origins quotas and exclusions that had restricted immigration from certain countries and regions. In their place were overall hemispheric caps on visas. At first, there were different caps for the Eastern (170,000) and Western (120,000) Hemispheres, but in 1978 a global cap of 290,000 was established. To ensure that no one country dominated, a per-country limit of 20,000 visas was instituted. Eligibility criteria broadly mirrored the 1952 law in giving priority to those sponsored by family members and employers. However, the 1965 amendments changed the employment categories and opened the door for a sizable increase in family reunification visas. Originally, only “highly skilled immigrants whose services are urgently needed in the U.S.” could apply for admission. The 1965 law, however, permitted applications from skilled and unskilled workers in occupations with labor shortages. A “nonpreference” category was also established to admit applicants not covered under the other categories. Over time, this last category was eliminated because of growing backlogs in the other preferences.