California. Dept. of Industrial Relations. Division of Immigration and Housing.

The California State Legislature created the Commission of Immigration and Housing by the enactment of Chapter 318 on June 12, 1913. The second state agency of its kind in the United States (after New York), the governor-appointed commission was responsible for regulating housing conditions and performing immigrant protective functions. While begun as an independant agency, reporting only to the Board of Commissioners and the governor, in 1921 the Commission came under management of the Division of Housing and Sanitation, and in 1927 it was renamed the Division of Immigration and Housing, operating within the Department of Industrial Relations. The United States' participation in World War II changed the focus of the Division and the state mandated the agency to be responsible for the transport of Japanese Americans to relocation centers. Public interest in immigration and migrant labor was replaced by the war effort, and as American defense production demands increased, migrant laborers moved out of the fields and into defense work. Changes in leadership led to a restructuring of the Division, and in 1944 their immigrant protection powers were abolished. The Division was dissolved in October 1945.