Ineligible to citizenship

Because naturalization was limited by race, Asian immigrants in particular could live in the U.S. for decades and never become citizens. The Immigration Act of 1924 then excluded from entry any alien ineligible for citizenship, which ended most immigration from Japan in breach of the Gentlemen's Agreement.

The status reached into families. Until 1931 an American woman who married such a man lost her own citizenship. A Japanese picture bride admitted in 1913 later wrote on a wartime registration form that citizenship had been denied to her by law. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 removed racial bars to naturalization.