Eugenics became increasingly popular as more immigrants entered the United States. Due to that, research in eugenics began to take place in ports. Congress in 1917, expanded the definition of those "likely to become a public charge". It included, “all idiots, imbeciles, feebleminded persons, epileptics, insane persons, persons of constitutional psychopathic inferiority, and the mentally or physically defective. The Public Health Service (PHS) was required to inspect all of the passengers arriving in the ports and declare them fir or unfit. The PHS was publicly supportive of the eugenics movement. Any individual that that qualified as unfit was essentially eligible for the eugenics research being conducted on Ellis Island. Harry Laughlin conducted research on metal hospitals and other charitable institutions that supported the eugenics based immigration restriction bill. The Immigration Restriction Act of 1924 resulted from the bill. This act halted the immigration of several races that were considered to be “dysgenic”. It reduced the numbers of southern and eastern European immigrants from 45% to 15%. When President C. Coolidge signed the act he said,” American must remain American.” The Immigration restriction act ended the greatest era of immigration in U.S. history. The eugenics intent of the law and quota system it established would remain in place until the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 repealed it.
