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AP U.S. History Diagnostic 20 173 Views


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AP U.S. History Diagnostic 20. Why were Mexican immigrants able to freely enter the United States despite the restrictions mentioned in the excerpt?

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English Language

Transcript

00:00

And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by the emergency quota,

00:04

the number of emergencies allowed per day.

00:06

Yeah. It's mandated by Obama.

00:08

That's it. Only so many a day.

00:10

All right, check out this excerpt.

00:11

[ mumbles ]

00:14

[ mumbling continues ]

00:17

Hmm. And the question:

00:18

Why were Mexican immigrants able to

00:20

freely enter the United States despite

00:23

the restrictions mentioned in the excerpt?

00:25

And here are your potential answers.

00:26

[ mumbles ]

00:28

[ mumbling continues ]

00:32

All right. Well, following World War I, the United States

00:35

decided to hang a

00:37

"sorry, we're closed" sign on Ellis Island,

00:40

restricting immigration through a series of caps and quotas.

00:43

Mexican immigrants, however, weren't subject to these new rules.

00:47

Let's see which answer can explain

00:49

their gold star status.

00:51

Were Mexican immigrants allowed to freely enter the U.S.

00:54

A - to hold up the philosophies of the Monroe Doctrine?

00:59

Well, it'd be grand to think

01:00

the American government wanted to uphold previous

01:02

positions by playing nice with its friends down south, but

01:06

there's something else at work here.

01:07

And that knocks at A and D.

01:09

We weren't just being, like, nice.

01:11

Sort of.

01:12

Would the U.S. have allowed Mexican immigrants to

01:14

freely enter the U.S. C -

01:16

to allow for separated families to be reunited?

01:19

Nice again. A noble cause,

01:22

but this kind of preferential treatment towards

01:24

family members didn't come into play

01:26

until the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.

01:29

All right, so it's not C, either.

01:31

Which means that Mexican immigrants were able to enter the U.S.

01:34

despite restrictions on immigration

01:36

B - to ensure the availability of inexpensive farm labor.

01:41

Isolationist policies may have been

01:43

the hot topic following World War I,

01:46

but the desire for cheap labor was a close second.

01:49

So the U.S. made a deal with Mexico to keep a regular stream of

01:52

laborers flowing in,

01:54

regardless of quotas put in place.

01:56

That makes B the right answer.

01:58

Though this inexpensive labor was integral to the growth of agricultural profits,

02:03

many Mexicans and Mexican-Americans were

02:05

deported once the Great Depression hit and jobs became

02:08

scarce, thank you very much.

02:10

So much for good neighbor policy.

02:12

[ all operators are busy at this time ]

02:14

[ please hold ]

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