Immigration Restriction League (U.S.)

The Immigration Restriction League was founded in 1894 by three Harvard College graduates: Prescott F. (Prescott Farnsworth) Hall, Robert DeCourcy Ward, and Charles Warren. The League was founded in Boston, but membership spread across the U.S. Their intention was to educate the populace to problems of the immigration system in the U.S., gain support for immigration restriction from powerful individuals and groups, and to lobby for passage of restrictive legislation. The League remained active for nearly twenty years, but after the death of Hall, their energy waned and they eventually disbanded.

The Immigration Restriction League was founded in 1894 by three Harvard College graduates, Charles Warren, Robert DeCourcy Ward, and Prescott Farnsworth Hall, in response to an increasing sense of invasion of the United States by "undesirable immigrants" that threatened their sense of the American way of life. The League was founded in Boston, but quickly spread to many other cities across the United States. The main intention of the League was to educate people to what the founders saw as serious problems in the immigration system, to lobby the U.S. government for the reform of that system, to gain support for immigration restriction from major intellectual, industrial, and philanthropic individuals and organizations, and to pass laws effecting the restriction. The League remained active for nearly twenty years, but after the death of Hall their energy waned, and the League eventually disbanded.

Prescott F. (Farnsworth) Hall, in addition to being a founding member of the League, was elected General Secretary to the Executive Committee of Immigration Restriction Leagues, the overarching board for the national movement, in 1896.