The Immigration Act of 1903, also called the Anarchist Exclusion Act, was a law of the United States regulating immigration. It codified previous immigration law, and added four inadmissible classes: anarchists, people with epilepsy, beggars, and importers of prostitutes. It had little impact and its provisions related to anarchists were expanded in the Immigration Act of 1918.

Background
Anarchism came to public attention in the United States with the Haymarket Affair of 1886. On May 4, a policeman was killed and several others were wounded, of which six later died, after a bomb exploded in Chicago's Haymarket Square.[1] Eight members of the recently formed International Working People's Association (IWPA) were found guilty of the bombing.[1] The IWPA's 1883 manifesto called for the "destruction of the existing class rule, by all means, i.e., by energetic, relentless, revolutionary and international action".[1]

The idea of excluding anarchists from immigrating was first mentioned at a Congressional hearing in 1889.[2] A bill introduced on July 20, 1894 sought to restrict the entry of anarchists by requiring potential immigrants to visit an U. S. consulate for a political review before immigrating.[3] A substitute bill proposed a system within the United States to detect, question, and deport immigrants accused of anarchism.[4] Both died in committee.[3]

On September 6, 1901, Leon F. Czolgosz, an American-born son of Polish immigrants and a self-proclaimed anarchist, assassinated President William McKinley.[5] The police responded by arresting a number of anarchists, including Emma Goldman and a group of Chicago anarchists that published Free Society, the leading English-language communist-anarchist periodical in the U.S. at the time.[6] They were all later released because no evidence of conspiracy could be found. And there were some viewpoints in the anarchist opinion which strongly denounced Czolgosz, some calling him a "dangerous crank", despite what was to come next.

Theodore Roosevelt urged the exclusion and deportation of anarchist immigrants in his first address to Congress on December 3, 1901.

Legislation
President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Act, officially "An Act To regulate the immigration of aliens into the United States", ch. 1012, 32 Stat. 1222,[8] into law on March 3, 1903, the last day of the 57th United States Congress.[9][10] It codified previous immigration law and added four inadmissible classes: anarchists, people with epilepsy, beggars, and importers of prostitutes.[11] It also allowed for the deportation within two years of anyone unlawfully in the country and raised the head tax on immigrants to the United States to two dollars ($2.00).

This was the first legislation in the U.S. since the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 that called for questioning potential immigrants about their political beliefs.[12] The Act barred anyone "who disbelieves in or who is opposed to all organized government, or who is a member of or affiliated with any organization entertaining or teaching such disbelief in or opposition to all organized government."[13] The law also limited the deportation of non-citizen anarchists to the first three years of their residency in the United States.

Enforcement
The impact of the law was slight. The Commissioner-General of Immigration reported that from the time the law took effect in 1903 until June 30, 1914, a total of 15 anarchists were denied entry to the U.S. He reported that four anarchists were expelled in 1913 and three in 1914.[14]

Amendment
The Act was re-enacted on June 29, 1906.[16]

Advocates for using the immigration laws to combat radicalism campaigned to expand the law's definitions of those who could be excluded or deported. The 1903 Act was amended by the Immigration Act of 1918, which expanded and elaborated the brief definition of anarchist found in the 1903 Act and enhanced the government's ability to deport adherents of anarchism.[18]