Nativism- the policy of protecting the interests of native inhabitants against those of immigrants. One of the most well known nativist groups was the Klu Klux Klan. Another examples is when Irish immigrants came to the U.S. during the Potato Famine in the mid-1800s and petitions were filed to the government to limit their right to vote.
The high surge in nativism quickly led to the strong immigration restriction legislature. Starting with the Emergency Quota Act or Emergency Immigration Act of 1921, this act limited the amount of immigrants coming into the United States. It was an immigration quota that limited annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to only 3% of the people living in the United States. The Immigration Act of 1924 limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to only 2% of the people living in the United States. Along with the Immigration Act of 1924, also came the National Origins Act of 1924 which also penalized the Japanese as well as other Asians, and also restricted greatly the flow of Southern and Eastern Europeans more than the other immigration restriction legislature had. In July of 1927, the quota was pushed down to only 150,000 immigrants annually allowed in the United States due to the National Origins Act as well. In addition to anti-immigrant legislation, foreigners would receive messages from people in the United States teaching them to assimiliate into American culture, in hopes of "Americanizing" them.