Policies Affecting Southeast Asian Americans

1921 Immigration Act (Johnson Act)
1924 Immigration Act (Johnson-Reed)
1952 Immigration and Nationality Act (McCarran-Walter Act) upheld national origins quotas
1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act ended national origin as basis for admission to United States
1973 Vietnam peace accord signed; last U.S. troops withdrawn from Vietnam
1975 Parole authorized for Vietnamese dependents of U.S. citizens

Operation Frequent Wind-U.S. government evacuated U.S. and Vietnamese people from Saigon

Refugee centers opened in United States in various forts during April and May President Gerald Ford established interagency Task Force (IATF) in April to coordinate federal activity concerned with evacuation and resettlement of Vietnamese refugees

Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act provided funds for resettlement programs

All refugee centers closed and IATF terminated in December; Department of Health, Education, Welfare Refugee Task Force assumed responsibility for refugee resettlement

Parole granted for Cambodians in third countries

1976 Indochina Refugee Children Assistance Act extended educational assistance for elementary and secondary education of refugee children
1977 Public Law 956-135-Indochinese refugee allowed to become permanent residents of United States (could apply for citizenship five years after arrival)

Additional refugees granted parole by attorney general

Federal government supplemented state educational agency budgets for reimbursement of local schools with refugee children

Congress passed bill to phase down refugee assistance over next four years, also provided adjustment of status from parole to permanent resident alien

1980 Refugee Act
1989 Amerasian Homecoming Act
1990 Immigration Act

Congress passed legislation exempting Vietnamese in United States who are not U.S. citizens from a law banning anyone but a citizen from owning and piloting commercial fishing boats off the California coast [Back]