The Refugee Act
The Refugee Act amended previous immigration legislation to create a standardized system for processing refugees.
In 1951, the US and other countries adopted the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a set of guidelines, laws, and conventions that were a first effort to characterize and protect refugees. In the aftermath of World War II, this initial document was created primarily for the protection of European refugees. As the displacement of people surged globally during the 1960s, the United Nations adopted a second document known as the 1967 Protocol, which expanded refugee status to displaced people around the world. These documents laid the groundwork for the Refugee Act.
The Refugee Act, passed unanimously by the US Senate, was a response to the political chaos that followed the end of the Vietnam War and the hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese and Cambodians who fled their countries in fear of their lives. The Refugee Act created a process for reviewing and adjusting the refugee ceiling to meet emergencies, and required annual consultation between Congress and the president on refugee admissions. The act raised the annual ceiling on admissions from 17,400 to 50,000.
