ShmoopTube

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

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the number of emergencies allowed per day.

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Yeah. It's mandated by Obama.

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That's it. Only so many a day.

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All right, check out this excerpt.

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[ mumbles ]

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[ mumbling continues ]

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Hmm. And the question:

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Why were Mexican immigrants able to

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freely enter the United States despite

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the restrictions mentioned in the excerpt?

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And here are your potential answers.

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[ mumbles ]

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[ mumbling continues ]

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

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decided to hang a

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

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restricting immigration through a series of caps and quotas.

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

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Let's see which answer can explain

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their gold star status.

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

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

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Well, it'd be grand to think

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the American government wanted to uphold previous

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positions by playing nice with its friends down south, but

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there's something else at work here.

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And that knocks at A and D.

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We weren't just being, like, nice.

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Sort of.

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Would the U.S. have allowed Mexican immigrants to

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freely enter the U.S. C -

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to allow for separated families to be reunited?

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Nice again. A noble cause,

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but this kind of preferential treatment towards

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family members didn't come into play

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until the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.

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

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

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despite restrictions on immigration

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B - to ensure the availability of inexpensive farm labor.

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Isolationist policies may have been

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the hot topic following World War I,

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but the desire for cheap labor was a close second.

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

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laborers flowing in,

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regardless of quotas put in place.

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That makes B the right answer.

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

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many Mexicans and Mexican-Americans were

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deported once the Great Depression hit and jobs became

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scarce, thank you very much.

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So much for good neighbor policy.

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