The Federal Government was
represented only by the customs officers who ransacked their baggage.
In 1875 the Federal Supreme Court decided that it was unconstitutional
for a State to regulate immigration. "We are of the opinion," said the
Court, "that this whole subject has been confided to Congress by the
Constitution; that Congress can more appropriately and with more
acceptance exercise it than any other body known to our law, state or
national; that, by providing a system of laws in these matters
applicable to all ports and to all vessels, a serious question which
has long been a matter of contest and complaint may be effectively and
satisfactorily settled."[51] Congress dallied seven years with this
important question, and was finally forced to act when New York
threatened to close Castle Garden. In 1882 a Federal immigration law
assessed a head tax of fifty cents on every passenger, not a citizen,
coming to the United States, and provided that the States should share
with the Secretary of the Treasury the obligation of its enforcement.
This law inaugurated the policy of selective immigration, as it
excluded convicts, lunatics, idiots, and persons likely to become a
public charge. Three years later, contract laborers were also
excluded.
The unprecedented influx of immigrants now began to arouse public
discussion.
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